Russia says its coronavirus vaccine is 92% effective and can prevent Covid-19, according to its interim results.
Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF revealed the results two days after U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech publicly announced their vaccine was over 90% effective in phase three trials.
According to RDIF, the early results from its late-stage phase three clinical trial of the vaccine, called “Sputnik V,” indicated that its efficacy was “based on the 20 confirmed Covid-19 cases split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo.”
“Currently 40,000 volunteers are taking part in double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled Phase III of Sputnik V clinical trials, out of which over 20,000 have been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine and more than 16,000 with both the first and second doses of the vaccine,” a statement posted on the dedicated Sputnik V website on Wednesday.
Sputnik V
In August, RIDF said that Russia's coronavirus vaccine could be in use by November.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also announced the registration of the Russian vaccine for coronavirus in the same amount.
“As far as I know, a vaccine against a new coronavirus infection has been registered this morning, for the first time in the world,” he said at a meeting with government officials, RIA Novosti reported.
“Although I know that it works quite effectively, it forms a stable immunity and, I repeat, has passed all the necessary checks,” Putin said.
Russia, along with foreign partners, “are already prepared to manufacture over 500 million doses of vaccine per year in five countries, and the plan is to ramp-up production capacity even higher,” it said.
Russia said its work on producing a vaccine for Ebola and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) had allowed it to develop a Covid-19 vaccine.
“We were just fortunate that the coronavirus was very close to MERS, so we pretty much had a ready-to-go vaccine on MERS, studied for two years on MERS (and) slightly modified to be the coronavirus vaccine, and that is the real story, no politics … Russia has always been at the forefront of vaccine research,” Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund RDIF, which is backing the vaccine, told CNBC.
Dmitriev previously said that the vaccine could be available by November.
“Our point to the world is that we have this technology, it can be available in your country in November/December if we work well with your regulator … People who are very skeptical will not have this vaccine and we wish them good luck in developing theirs,” he said.
Covid-19 vaccine race
Pfizer Covid vaccine found over 90% effective at seven days after the second dose, according to the company’s announcement.
According to Pfizer and BioNTech’s statement, their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in responding to Covid-19 among those without proof of prior infection. They consider the development as “a great day for science and humanity.”
“I think we can see light at the end of the tunnel,” Pfizer Chairman and CEO Dr. Albert Bourla said during an interview on CNBC’s Meg Tirrell on “Squawk Box.” “I believe this is likely the most significant medical advance in the last 100 years, if you count the impact this will have in public health, global economy.”
The statement comes as drugmakers and research centers race to produce a safe and effective vaccine to control the coronavirus pandemic that has killed over 1.2 million lives across the world.
