PARIS: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 91.6 per cent effective against symptomatic Covid-19, according to results published in The Lancet on Tuesday that independent experts said allayed transparency concerns over the jab, which Moscow is already rolling out.
Sputnik V was approved in Russia months before results from its final-stage clinical trials were published, leading to scepticism from experts.
But the new analysis of data from 20,000 participants in Phase 3 trials suggests that the two-dose vaccination offers more than 90 per cent efficacy against symptomatic Covid-19. The results suggest Sputnik V is among the top performing vaccines, along with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna jabs.
Pre-empting the results of the phase 3 trials, Russia has already launched a mass inoculation campaign for citizens 18 and older.
The trial involved giving 14,964 participants in the vaccine group and 4,902 in the placebo group two jabs 21 days apart.
The vaccine has the advantage of being able to be stored at normal refrigerator temperatures instead of the conditions far below freezing required for some other vaccines. — AFP