According to a study published on Tuesday, the Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V is about 91 percent effective.
The results in the British medical journal The Lancet are from a phase 3 trial of about 20,000 people in Russia last autumn.
Concerns about the safety of the two-dose plug-in installed after Russia approved Sputnik V in August – ahead of its Western rivals and ahead of large-scale clinical trials.
At the time, President Vladimir Putin said one of his daughters had been vaccinated with it, although it had only been tested in a few dozen people.
The latest study involved about 20,000 participants over the age of 18 at 25 hospitals in Moscow between September and November. Three-quarters received two doses of Sputnik V 21 days apart and the rest received placebos.
The most common side effects were flu-like symptoms, injection site pain and fatigue. Serious side effects in both groups were rare. Four deaths were reported, but none were considered as a result of the vaccine.
The study also included more than 2,100 people over the age of 60, and the vaccine appears to be more than 92 percent effective in them.
The Russian vaccine is similar to one developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford. Both use a modified version of the cold that causes adenovirus to carry genes for the vein protein in the coronavirus to make the body respond to a COVID infection.
But unlike the AstraZeneca / Oxford recording, the Russian version uses a slightly different adenovirus for its second shot.
“It aims to drive higher immune responses to the ‘peak’ target by using two slightly different points,” said Alexander Edwards, associate professor of biomedical technology at the British University of Reading, who was not involved in the Russian research. , told the Associated Press. .
Some experts believe that the modified shot may be why the Russian vaccine has better results than that of AstraZeneca, which has an efficacy rate of about 60 to 70 percent.
Putin last month ordered mass vaccinations to begin in the country, which according to the TASS news agency could vaccinate 700 million people this year.
In December, the Russian scientist behind Sputnik V said the jab could offer two years of protection against COVID-19.
A group of 40,000 doses of Sputnik V was delivered to Hungary on Tuesday, the first member of the European Union to approve and order the vaccine.
Sputnik V has also received approval in more than a dozen countries and more than 50 countries have submitted applications for 2.4 billion doses.
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