AstraZeneca to combine its COVID-19 vaccine with Russia's Sputnik V

 

British and Russian scientists have joined forces in this arduous fight against the pandemic. AstraZeneca and Russia announced that they will combine their COVID-19 vaccine candidates in search of a more effective immunization option than those developed so far.

The information emerged this Friday from Russia's sovereign wealth fund, RDIF, which financed the Sputnik V project. But it has also been confirmed by the pharmaceutical company recently.

An unexpected association

While the Pfizer-BioNtech partnership candidate has already been approved in the UK, Canada and the US, the verdict is still awaited for two other promising projects. But who would imagine that one of them would be associated with one of the most controversial developments in this pandemic, Sputnik V?

The news probably comes as a surprise to many, but it is a fact and both parties are determined to create a more effective COVID-19 vaccine. Both RDIF and AstraZeneca have confirmed that trials of the new vaccine combination will begin at the end of December.

Last month, the developers of Sputnik V proposed through the social platform Twitter a partnership with AstraZeneca to combine their drugs. This after the British laboratory published the preliminary results of the phase III trials of its vaccine.

And as we see, the answer was yes, to which the director of RDIF, Kirill Dmitriev, referred to as an "important step" in the fight against the pandemic. In his statement he also expressed his expectations that other manufacturers also follow this example.

"AstraZeneca's decision to conduct clinical trials using one of the two Sputnik V vectors to increase the efficacy of its own vaccine is an important step toward joining forces in the fight against the pandemic."

Forgetting the conflicts of the past

But omitting these formalities, it is convenient to go back to the past to recall the trajectory and opinions of the manufacturers involved regarding their candidates. Trials of the Russian vaccine were halted in September due to an unexplained illness in one of their volunteers.

AstraZeneca also experienced difficulties in its trials, after two cases of transverse myelitis detected among its volunteers. Shortly after, they reported that these were not linked to the vaccine, and although this is something that could be expected in this type of test, this received some criticism from the scientific community.

The funny thing is that Dmitry Peskov, the Russian spokesman, said that his country's COVID-19 vaccine was more reliable because it was based on adenovirus found in humans. Instead, he referred to the British candidate as "a monkey vaccine."

It might sound unfair of the official, but British scientists also showed distrust of Russia after Russian state-backed "hackers" tried to steal information about its formula in July.

AstraZeneca and Russia will combine their COVID-19 vaccine candidates seeking greater effectiveness

The new partnership comes as AstraZeneca prepares for confirmation of its candidate's effectiveness. But this vote of confidence is perhaps what Russia needs for its development to be accepted by the international community despite the tightness of its evidence.

AstraZeneca said it was considering different vaccine combinations, including Sputnik V. It also reported that it would soon begin to examine the performance of the combination between its COVID-19 vaccine and that of Russia in order to increase current efficacy.

At the moment, there are not many details about the upcoming trials to begin. But the Russian spokesman said it would include adults from 18 years of age.

Reference:

AstraZeneca hitches ride with Russia's Sputnik in vaccine race. https://uk.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-astrazeneca-russia-idUKKBN28L10M