Russia announces 92% efficacy of Sputnik V vaccine.

The team of researchers developing the Russian vaccine against covid-19 announced that preliminary results from the third phase of the clinical trial indicate a 92% efficacy of Sputnik V.

According to the Russian Direct Investment Fund and the National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology Gamaleya, a preliminary analysis of 20 cases of covid-19 identified among clinical trial participants led to the conclusion that the vaccine is 92% effective.

These results are the result of an analysis of over 16,000 volunteers, out of a total of 40,000 involved in the trial, which took place three weeks after receiving the first dose of vaccine or a placebo.

The announcement, released Thursday by the scientific journal Nature, was made Wednesday in a statement posted on the Sputnik V website, two days after pharmaceutical company Pfizer revealed interim data indicates that its vaccine may be effective. in 90% of cases.

Pfizer’s results, however, come from a record of 94 infections out of nearly 44,000, which is a larger sample than Russia’s.

Because of this difference, a British epidemiologist, Stephen Evans, quoted by “Nature” warns that the the small number of cases reported in the Sputnik V study implies a lower degree of certainty about the efficacy of the vaccine.

“Additional monitoring is needed because the results are consistent with much lower effectiveness – 60% – based on this data,” he says.

Another immunology expert cited by the same publication, Shane Crotty, says that “I wouldn’t get anything out of 20 events”.

The development of the Russian vaccine against covid-19 has been controversial, as the protocol of clinical trials has not been made public, unlike other candidates, such as Pfizer’s, and it is therefore not clear if a preliminary analysis was already foreseen. . to 20 positive cases.

“I fear this data has been hastened by Pfizer’s announcement,” another British immunologist, Eleanor Riley, told Nature, warning that “this is not a competition.”

In early September, preliminary results from a study published by the scientific journal “The Lancet” found that the Russian covid-19 vaccine was safe, caused no serious adverse reactions and caused an antibody response.

The covid-19 pandemic has caused at least 1,285,160 deaths in more than 52.1 million cases of infection worldwide, according to a report by the French agency AFP.