After Pfizer, Russia says its Covid vaccine Sputnik V over 90% effective

New Delhi, Nov 11: Russia on Wednesday claimed that Sputnik V vaccine is 92% effective at protecting people from Covid-19 according to interim trial results, the country's sovereign wealth fund.

The announcement follows results posted earlier this week by vaccine developers Pfizer and BioNTech, who said their US-German jab was more than 90 per cent effective at preventing disease.

The confirmation is based on the first interim data from the largest randomised, placebo-controlled Phase-III clinical trials in Russia involving 40,000 volunteers, a press release from Gamaleya and the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) said.

The trials evaluated the efficacy among over 16,000 volunteers who received the vaccine or placebo 21 days after the first injection. As a result of a statistical analysis of 20 confirmed cases of coronavirus, the case split between vaccinated individuals and those who received the placebo indicating that the Sputnik V vaccine had an efficacy rate of 92 per cent after the second dose, the release said.

In September 2020,Dr. Reddys and Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Russias sovereign wealth fund,entered into a partnership to conduct clinical trials of Sputnik V vaccine and its distribution in India.

Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE on Monday said their vaccine candidate was found to be more than 90 per cent effective in preventing COVID-19.