Moscow: Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine is 92 per cent effective in protecting people from COVID-19 according to interim trial results, Reuters reported.
The interim results are based on data from first 16,000 trial participants who received both shots of the two-dose vaccine, the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has been backing the vaccine and marketing it globally, said.
“The chances of contracting COVID-19 were 92 per cent lower among people vaccinated with Sputnik V than those who received the placebo,” RDIF stated.
“We are showing, based on the data, that we have a very effective vaccine,” RDIF head Kirill Dmitriev was quoted as saying.
These results come few days after vaccine developers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech declared that their vaccine was more than 90 per cent effective.
This is well above the 50 per cent effectiveness threshold for COVID-19 vaccines fixed by the US Food and Drug Administration.