New Delhi: The Russia-developed Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus has been found to be over 95 per cent effective. This information was given Tuesday by CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) Kirill Dmitriev. He also stated that the a single dose of the Sputnik V will cost approximately Rs 700 and will be available January onwards in India.
In a virtual conference from Moscow, Dmitriev said Sputnik V is not only ‘one of the most effective’ but also among the ‘affordable’ vaccines in the world. It has been developed by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and RDIF.
The RDIF CEO said the vaccine can be stored in temperatures ranging from 2-8 degrees Celsius. It is a very important factor in facilitating easy distribution. “The efficacy of the vaccine is over 95 per cent which is great news not only for Rusia but (also) for the world,” Dmitriev said.
Also read: Russian Sputnik V vaccine for COVID-19 arrives in India for human clinical trial
The news augurs well for India as pharma giant Dr Reddy’s Laboratories is conducting clinical trials of the Sputnik V vaccine. The pharma company will also look after its distribution.
Dmitriev said talks are on with regulators in countries where clinical trials are being done. He said the trials are being done on 42,000 volunteers in Russia and other countries. He informed the clinical trial data will be also published in international journals and peer-reviewed by the international community.
“The price of one dose of Sputnik V will amount to less than USD10 in the international market. The vaccine will require a primer booster shot and the price will be less than USD20. This is half the cost for vaccines with similar efficacy,” Dmitriev said. “We have achieved the industrial production of the dry form of the vaccine. It will allow us to distribute the vaccine and use it at temperatures of plus 2 to plus 8 degrees Celsius. This will also be one of the most affordable vaccines in terms of distribution, logistics, and everything else,” he added.
Amid a global race to come out with an effective vaccine to check the pandemic that had ravaged the world, Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech too had announced that their vaccine appears 95 per cent effective at preventing mild to severe COVID-19 disease in a large, ongoing study.
US-based biotechnology giant Moderna also announced that its COVID 19 vaccine has shown to be 94.5 percent effective in preventing the deadly disease.
