AstraZeneca to Test Combining Its Vaccine With Russia’s Sputnik V

It is likely that combining vaccines may lead to improved immunity over a longer-period of time, the company said.

AstraZeneca, a British pharmaceutical giant, said on Friday, 11 December that it will start clinical trials with Russia’s Gamaleya Institute to test a combination of its experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia’s Sputnik V shot to see if can boost the efficacy of the vaccine, reported CNBC.

The trials will start by the end of the year, said the RDIF wealth fund, which has funded Sputnik V, reported Reuters.

“Being able to combine different COVID-19 vaccines may be helpful for improved protection and/or to improve vaccine accessibility. This is why it is important to explore different vaccine combinations to help make immunisation programmes more flexible, by allowing physicians greater choice at the time of administering vaccines,” AstraZeneca said in a statement on Friday, reported CNBC.

“It is also likely that combining vaccines may lead to improved immunity over a longer-period of time,” it added.

The Collaboration Will Fight A Pandemic That Has Killed 1.58 Million People Globally

The co-operation between AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, produced in a collaboration with the University of Oxford, and the Russian government-backed Sputnik V, aim to develop an effective shot to fight the pandemic that has killed over 1.58 million people, reported Reuters.

According to John Hopkins University, more than 69 million people have contracted the coronavirus worldwide.

AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is seeking approval from regulators. Data published in the Lancet medical journal this week has shown the vaccine to be safe and effective with an average efficacy of 70.4%, reported CNBC.

Russia has claimed Sputnik V is over 90% effective in preventing people from contracting the virus -- similar to US rivals Pfizer and Moderna -- citing preliminary results from ongoing trials, reported CNBC.

However, the Western medical fraternity have cited concerns about the speed at which Russia has worked in giving the regulatory go-ahead and launching large scale vaccinations with Sputnik V before full trials to test its safety and efficacy have been completed, reported Reuters.

The editor-in-chief of Lancet medical journal, Dr. Richard Horton, told CNBC that AstraZeneca’s vaccine had a “distinct comparative advantage” over other leading candidates. He also said it was the one likely to be able to immunise the world “more effectively” and “more rapidly” than its peers. The vaccine is designed to prime the immune system to attack the coronavirus in the body, reported CNBC.

(With inputs from CNBC and Reuters)