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British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca unveiled plans to collaborate with Russia’s Sputnik V developer, Moscow-based Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, and explore whether its two coronavirus vaccines could be successfully combined.
“Today we announce a program of clinical trials to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of the AZD1222 combination, developed by AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford and Sputnik V, developed by the Russian research institute Gamaleya,” AstraZeneca said Friday in a statement issued. on their website.
Russia was the first country to register a coronavirus vaccine in August despite incomplete clinical trials by Sputnik V. While the vaccine has not yet completed its third and final phase of testing involving some 40,000 volunteers, its developers revealed that the results of interim trials of the vaccine showed an efficacy of 95%. Russia’s first vaccine, called Sputnik-V, bears the same name as the world’s first satellite launched in 1957 by the Soviet Union during the space race. The name signifies the country’s success in being the first nation to have an approved vaccine.
Meanwhile, AZD1222 co-invented by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company showed 62% efficacy in preventing Covid-19 disease in participants who received two full injections of the vaccine, according to the latest results. While the Russian Sputnik V vaccine uses human adenovirus, Oxford-AstraZeneca’s AZD1222 vaccine is based on a replication-deficient chimpanzee viral vector. Both are given in two doses.
In the statement, the British-Swedish drug maker expressed confidence that a combination of the two coronavirus vaccines will help generate “broader protection through a stronger immune response and better accessibility.” The drug company said that adults 18 and older will enroll in the trials, which are expected to begin before the end of the year.
AstraZeneca’s decision to conduct a joint clinical trial with the makers of the Russian Sputnik V came shortly after the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), which has funded the development of the Sputnik V, offered the Russian-based pharmaceutical giant Cambridge last month tried combining the two cold virus vaccines to increase efficacy. According to Russian developers, such a combination could increase the effectiveness of revaccination drugs, a second vaccine that is made to strengthen the immune system.
The deadly virus, which was first identified in Wuhan, the capital of China’s Hubei province, in December, has spread exponentially around the world. After the cases of person-to-person transmission were confirmed, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the coronavirus outbreak an international public health emergency, but due to a sharp increase in cases, it was soon forced to to make a new declaration, declaring the outbreak of a pandemic.
According to an interactive map from the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, the number of coronavirus cases globally has reached the grim milestone of 70 million cases and 1.6 million deaths.
The United States tops the list with more than 15.9 million infected people, followed by India with more than 9.8 million cases. Brazil ranks third with more than 6.8 million cases.
Although Russia has the fourth highest number of confirmed infections worldwide, the country’s death rate is much lower than in other countries. According to official government data, 2.6 million cases of COVID-19 have been recorded in Russia since the beginning of the outbreak in the country and 46,453 people have died from the virus.
