Sputnik V developers in Russia call on AstraZeneca to try to combine vaccines

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Developers of the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine said Thursday that AstraZeneca should try to combine its experimental shot with the Russian vaccine to increase its effectiveness.

Russia said its Sputnik V vaccine was 92% effective in protecting people against COVID-19, according to interim trial results, while AstraZeneca said its COVID-19 vaccine was 70% effective in pivotal trials and could be up to 90% effective.

“If they opt for a new clinical trial, we suggest trying a regimen combining the AZ vaccine with the human adenoviral vector #SputnikV to increase efficacy,” the developers of the Russian vaccine said on their Twitter account.

“The combination of vaccines can be important for revaccinations.”

AstraZeneca has said it will have 200 million doses of its vaccine by the end of 2020.

The vaccine developed by the UK is considered one of the best prospects for many developing countries due to its cheaper price and ability to be carried at normal refrigerator temperatures.

With 2,187,990 infections, Russia has the fourth highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world behind the United States, India and Brazil.

AstraZeneca is likely to conduct an additional global trial to assess the effectiveness of its vaccine, its chief executive Pascal Soriot said as quoted by Bloomberg News after questions were raised about the results of its late-stage study.

UK government chief science adviser Patrick Vallance said the main point about the AstraZeneca vaccine was that it worked, when asked about such doubts.

“The main result is that the vaccine works and that is very exciting,” Vallance said during a press briefing with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.