Thursday, February 4, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1996, Peter C. Doherty, highlighted the effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine against COVID-19. He also said that any dose changes in the face of new variants of the virus would not cause difficulties for their creators.
Speaking to the Russian news agency TASS, Doherty stressed the use of viral vectors in the manufacture of the drug developed by the Gamaleya center.
“The effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine – more than 90% – looks very good and, in addition, Russia has a long history in the development of good vaccines. The strategy of using two adenovirus vectors makes sense and is, as I understand it, used in Sputnik. Of course, if the virus changes significantly as a result of the mutation, vaccine manufacturers will have to “correct” the drug a little, but it will not be difficult.“, Commented the specialist.
According to an interim analysis of phase 3 clinical trials, which was published on Tuesday, February 2, in the medical journal The Lancet, the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus has an overall efficacy of 91.6%.
The publication indicates that 21,977 adults participated in these studies, which were randomly assigned to the vaccine group (16,501 people) and the placebo group (5,746) between September 7 and November 24, 2020. In total, 19,866 volunteers received the two doses required for immunization and, among them, only 78 cases of COVID-19 were confirmed.