US scientists' conclusions suggesting that Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V is relatively less effective against the strain originating in South Africa are weak, as the Russian drug develops even better protection than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a source close to the Russian Gamaleya research institute that developed the Russian vaccine told Sputnik on Monday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th April, 2021) US scientists' conclusions suggesting that Russia's coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V is relatively less effective against the strain originating in South Africa are weak, as the Russian drug develops even better protection than the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, a source close to the Russian Gamaleya research institute that developed the Russian vaccine told Sputnik on Monday.
Last week, a group of US scientists published on the medical portal medRxiv a not yet peer-reviewed preprint report saying that the Russian vaccine is less effective in protecting against the South African variant than against other variants.
"The Sputnik V vaccine has proved to be the most effective vaccine in terms of neutralizing the activity of various strains the level of resistance to the most problematic South African variant was significantly higher than that of Pfizer," the source said.
The source also noted that the report in question had not yet been subject to the peer review process, adding one of the three main authors of the article has a clear conflict of interest, as he is a member of the advisory board of Pfizer/BioNtech on coronavirus variants.
"Only in an additional test [in which not a live SARS-Cov-2 coronavirus but a surrogate vesicular stomatitis virus was used], the authors of the preprint were able to see the difference, which was not in favor of Sputnik V, in relation to the South African variant," the source said, calling the conclusions made in the report weak, as it is impossible to extend the data of a surrogate test to the real situation with the SARS-CoV-2 virus without significant reservations.
Russia's Sputnik V the world's first coronavirus vaccine registered last August has since been approved in 59 countries, becoming the second top vaccine in terms of approvals across the world. According to The Lancet peer-reviewed medical journal, it shows 91.6-percent efficacy against symptomatic COVID-19 cases.
