Oxford vaccine to be trialled alongside Russian Sputnik jab

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AstraZeneca, the biotechnology firm developing Oxford’s Covid-19 vaccine candidate, will start clinical trials combining its jab with Russia’s Sputnik vaccine by the end of the year, a Russian official has said.

The head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, Kirill Dmitriev, said in a statement that Russia was determined to start joint production of the new combined vaccine with AstraZeneca once it had proven its efficacy in clinical trials.

AstraZeneca announced earlier on Friday it would investigate combining the vaccines, a move Russian scientists suggested could sharply improve efficacy.

The firm said it would soon begin exploring with Russia’s Gamaleya Institute, which developed Sputnik V, whether two common cold virus-based vaccines could be successfully combined.

The Oxford vaccine has an efficacy rate of 90 per cent if administered at a half dose and then at a full dose, or 62 per cent effective if administered in two full doses, according to trial data published in The Lancet on Thursday.

No cases of hospitalisation or severe disease have been reported among those volunteers who received the vaccine, the study said. The efficacy results are based on a pooled analysis of phase-three trials in the UK and Brazil, which involved 11,636 people.

Russia has claimed that Sputnik V is 92 per cent effective at protecting people from coronavirus, according to interim trial results. The country began rolling out its vaccination programme this week despite the vaccine still undergoing phase three clinical trials.

Mr Dmitriev said: “This shows the strength of Sputnik V technology and our willingness and desire to partner with other vaccines to fight against Covid together.”

He added that cooperation between scientists from different countries would be decisive in beating the pandemic.

Additional reporting by Reuters