Early results suggest Sputnik V vaccine 92% effective, says Russia

Early data for Russia’s coro - navirus vaccine suggests it is 92 per cent effective, the country’s sovereign wealth fund has said.

The announcement on the Sputnik V vaccine comes days a f te r p h a r mace u t i c a l g i a n t Pfizer and biotech firm BionTech released interim results s u g g e s t i n g t h e i r va c c i n e i s more than 90 per cent effective at preventing Covid-19.

The phase three trials evaluated efficacy among more than 16,000 volunteers who received the vaccine or placebo 21 days after the first injection.

Statistical analysis of 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the cases split bet ween vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo, indicates the vaccine had an efficacy rate of 92 per cent after the second dose.

The Russian Direct Investm e n t Fu n d ( R D I F ) , w h i c h has been backing the vaccine, said there were no unexpected adverse events during the trials, and monitoring of the participants is continuing.

The results have not b een peer-reviewed.

T h e p h a s e t h r e e s t u dy o f the vaccine, developed by the Gamaleya Institute, is taking place in 29 clinics across Moscow and will involve 40,000 vo l u n t e e r s i n t o t a l , w i t h a quar ter receiving a placeb o shot.

Denis Logunov, deputy director of the Gamaleya Centre, said: “Positive interim results of phase three give reasons to expect a successful outcome of Sputnik V clinical trials. We will continue to process and analyse all the data and look to the future with optimism, expecting that results of our work will help end the pandemic sooner.”

The news comes as reports suggest three doctors in Russia caught coronavirus after being injected with the vaccine.

Chief epidemiologist of the Altai Territor y, Irina Pereladova, told local news website amic.ru there is no guarantee from a single vaccination that a person will not get sick after it, because they may already have the virus but b e in the incubation period.

Eleanor Riley, professor of immunolog y and infectious diseas e at the Universit y of Edinburgh, said: “I worry that these data have been rushed out on the back of the Pfizer/ Biontech announcement earlier in the week.”