Mosialos: “The Sputnik V vaccine is not as effective as Pfizer” | HELLAS

The professor of Health Policy of the LSA, Elias Mosialos, referred to the efficacy of the Russian vaccine and the announcements of the National Center for Research in Epidemiology and Microbiology of Gamaleya.

According to Elias Mosialos: The Center announced today that the Sputnik V vaccine has shown high efficacy against the coronavirus. The confirmation is based on data from the first interim analysis performed 21 days after vaccination of 16,000 volunteers in the Phase III clinical trial (double-blind randomized and controlled) of the Sputnik V vaccine.

According to the announcement:

• The effectiveness of the Sputnik V vaccine is 92%.
• Estimates were based on 20 confirmed COVID-19 cases (among vaccinated people and those who received the placebo vaccine).
• Currently, 40,000 volunteers are participating in the phase III clinical trial.
• “More than 20,000 have been vaccinated with the first dose of the vaccine and more than 16,000 have received both the first and second doses of the vaccine.”

And Elías Mosialos comments: “As I mentioned, the announced results are based on the clinical study of these 16,000 participants 21 days after receiving both doses.

Too:

• There were no unexpected or unwanted side effects during clinical trials and participant follow-up is ongoing.
• Observation of study participants will continue for six months, after which the final report will be presented.
• Currently, Sputnik V phase III clinical trials have been approved and are ongoing in Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and other countries, as well as phase II-III in India.

A separate detailed study on the safety and immunogenicity of the vaccine in the elderly is underway. The announcement states that the data will be submitted for publication in a leading medical academic journal, for peer review, following an independent evaluation of the data by leading experts in epidemiology. Upon completion of the phase III clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine, the Gamaleya Center will provide access to the full clinical trial report. Encouraging news from Sputnik V.

However, I should point out here that:

• We still cannot say that the Russian vaccine is as effective as the one from Pfizer / BioNtech
• The number of confirmed cases (20) is much lower than that reported by Pfizer / BioNtech (they announced 94 and intend to present an analysis of 164 confirmed cases in the coming weeks)
• Therefore, 92% is still a very precarious estimate.

Let’s wait for the next announcements, which will include more confirmed cases. I repeat, as in the case of Pfizer, all data must be available to the scientific community. “