Vaccine fears follow Russia rush and Pfizer fail

The race for a coronavirus vaccine took an unexpected turn yesterday when Russia announced it had produced a jab with even better results than Pfizer, amid growing concern that the US version is “completely unworkable”.

Less than 48 hours after Pfizer claimed to have succeeded in producing a vaccine with 90 per cent efficacy, Moscow said its Sputnik V candidate had reached 92 per cent.

The flagrant one-upmanship may have raised some eyebrows, but after getting so excited about the unverified Pfizer data, the scientific community could hardly blame Russia for failing to produce any evidence to support the claim.

Mikhail Murashko, minister of health of the Russian Federation, said the results demonstrated the vaccine was “an efficient solution to stop the spread of coronavirus” and that it would soon be rolled out nationally.

Yet there is mounting concern that the desire to be first with a vaccine is leading to rushed announcements which send share prices soaring but may ultimately fail to deliver.

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunology and infectious disease at the University of Edinburgh, warned vaccine groups may be racing for the finish line at the expense of public health.

“This is not a competition. We need all trials to be carried out to the highest possible standards and it is particularly important that the pre-set criteria for unblinding the trial data are adhered to avoid cherry-picking the data.”

But one former director at pharmaceutical giant GSK, said he was “utterly appalled” that Pfizer had released the clinical trial data before peer-review.

“Really it’s just a cynical and egregious marketing ploy by Pfizer to get early orders, with money up front, because they know mass vaccination with a vaccine that needs storage at -80C is completely unworkable. As soon as other vaccines are available, this Pfizer vaccine will not be widely used. Hence their announcement to get in early.”

Many experts now believe that the Pfizer vaccine will never be suitable for mass immunisation because of the cost and cold-chain storage required.

Philip Ashton, the chief executive and co-founder of 7bridges, an AI logistics company, said: “Moving and storing dry ice shipments is much more complex, and requires more expertise and infrastructure than the 2C-8C cold chain. Far fewer sites that may be able to administer a vaccine will currently have storage facilities for dry ice, or easy access to supplies of dry ice if they have to store the vaccine for any length of time.”

So in respect of distribution, the Russian announcement is better news than Pfizer, because the vaccine is a traditional viral vector, like the Oxford jab, and is much more stable at normal refrigeration temperatures. It is very similar to the Oxford vaccine, based on a common cold virus, and gives hope that the British version will also work.

The Russian results are based on just 20 cases of coronavirus compared to 94 for the Pfizer announcement, so they are less robust. They suggest that out of the 40,000 people in the trial, 18 coronavirus cases were seen in the unvaccinated population compared to two in the vaccinated cohort.

Professor Ian Jones, professor of virology, of the University of Reading, said: “The Sputnik data is yet more good news for Covid-19 vaccine development.” Dr Gillies O’BryanTear, of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine, added: “The more vaccines become available, using different mechanisms of action, the better for the control of the pandemic.”