London: Russia’s COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik V has been found to be 91.6 per cent effective in Phase-III trial, according to The Lancet medical journal.
The preliminary findings reveal that the two-dose vaccine was found effective in the population above 18 and 60 years.
No serious adverse events have been reported. Four deaths have been reported, though they have been ruled out as not linked to the vaccine.
Sputnik V vaccine was the first to be rolled out, and was criticised for being hasty with absence of transparency.
The results are based on data from 19,866 volunteers. Twenty-five per cent of these people received a placebo, the researchers, led by the Gamaleya Institute’s Denis Logunov, said in The Lancet.
The vaccine was rolled out in August though it was administered in limited quantity to frontline workers only. The full roll-out happened in January.
“Russia was right all along,” Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) told reporters. “The Lancet did very unbiased work despite some of the political pressures that may have been out there,” he said.
In the over 60 group, there were 2,144 volunteers. The shot was found to be 91.8 per cent effective in this group with no serious side-effects.
“The efficacy looks good, including in the over 60s,” said Danny Altmann, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London. “It’s good to have another addition to the global arsenal.”
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