AstraZeneca signs memorandum of cooperation with Russia's Sputnik V to combine COVID-19 vaccine
Putin lauds AstraZeneca as it signs vaccine tie-up deal with Russia
British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca on Monday signed a memorandum of cooperation with Russia's Gamaleya Institute, which developed Sputnik V,will sign a memorandum of intent on cooperation on Monday, the Kremlin said.
Russian President Vladimir Putinhailed British drugmaker AstraZeneca's decisionto test combining its own experimental COVID-19 vaccine with Russia's Sputnik V shot, as Moscow said the start of clinical trials was imminent.
Clinical trials, still underway, have shown Sputnik V has an efficacy rate of over 90 per cent, higher than that of AstraZeneca's own vaccine and similar to those of USrivals Pfizer and Moderna.
Putin praised Pascal Soriot, AstraZeneca's chief executive, who had dialed in by video conference.
Alexander Gintsburg, the head of Gamaleya research center said "The trials are starting very soon, practically right now. They will not require any big investment and long time simply because the two technologies that underpin AstraZeneca's vaccine and Sputnik V are very similar."
Meanwhile, Kirill Dmitriev, the head of RDIF, told the event that clinical trials combining the Russian and British vaccines would start soon in three countries.
He did not name the countries but mentioned some of them were in the Middle East and the former Soviet Union.
Dmitriev has previously said Russia believes the combination will boost the efficacy of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
The cooperation between one of Britain's most valuable listed companies and the state-backed Russian research institute highlights the pressure to develop an effective shot to fight the pandemic, which has killed over 1.6 million people.
In Moscow, the move is seen as a long-awaited vote of confidence by a Western manufacturer in Sputnik V, which Russian authorities say is the target of a foreign-backed smear campaign.
Russia wants to produce the new vaccine jointly if it is proven to be effective.
Dmitriev, head of RDIF, which has financed and promoted Sputnik V, also announced on Monday that Russia believed Sputnik was highly effective against a new strain of the coronavirus found in Europe.