Russia's Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine to cost less than $10 per dose; first international deliveries in Jan 2021

Interim trial data showed over 90% efficacy in large-scale clinical trials; India to test vaccine starting December

The developers of Russian Sputnik-V vaccine on Tuesday claimed 91% efficiency of the two-dose vaccine against novel coronavirus on the basis of an interim analysis of a large-scale clinical trial on nearly 19,000 individuals.

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After Pfizer-Bionet and Moderna products, this is the third Covid-19 vaccine with an efficacy in excess of 90% as claimed by their developers. In contrast the AstraZeneca-Oxford University vaccine has 70% efficacy but under certain conditions, it generates 90% plus efficacy too.

In September, the Russian authorities tied up with Indian pharmaceutical major Dr Reddy’s Laboratories to undertake clinical trials in India and distribute and sell the vaccine if the trial results are successful.

G V Prasad, co-chairman, and managing director of Dr Reddy's Laboratories said Sputnik-V vaccine trials would begin in India in the first week of December. “Its efficacy has to be tested on the Indian population too. So, in addition to the vaccine's success elsewhere it has to undergo trials here,” Prasad told DH. “Only after a favorable result here can we make a remark about the vaccine, and plan further action.”

As of November 24, more than 22,000 volunteers were vaccinated with the first dose and more than 19,000 volunteers with the first and the second dose of the vaccine at 29 medical centers in Russia as part of the ongoing phase-III clinical trials. An analysis of the trial results on 18,794 persons, demonstrated a 91.4% efficacy rate for the Sputnik-V – the world’s first registered Covid-19 vaccine.

Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which funded the vaccine development, said the dry form of the vaccine is stable between 2-8 degrees Celsius, making it a suitable candidate for transportation in the existing cold chain network.

The vaccine would be priced less $10 for a dose, making it cheaper than the Moderna vaccine that would cost between $25-$37 for different countries. Large scale shipment of the vaccine would commence from January 2021.

Out of 18,794 persons whose clinical trial data was used for the analysis, as many as 14,095 received the vaccine while 4,699 received a placebo. In the vaccine group, only 8 persons got the disease whereas 31 were infected by the novel coronavirus in the placebo group.

"The second interim efficacy analysis of Sputnik V has confirmed our findings from the first stage and shown its efficacy at 91-92%," Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology that developed the vaccine said in a statement.

The Russian scientists planned to carry out the phase-III trial on 40,000 persons in Russia. In addition phase III clinical trials are either ongoing or approved in Belarus, the UAE, Venezuela and India.