Covid-19 roundup: In­ter­im analy­sis sug­gests Russ­ian vac­cine is 91.6% ef­fec­tive; US inks big deal with Aus­tralian com­pa­ny for its at-home coro­n­avirus test

In­ter­im Phase III da­ta sug­gest Rus­sia’s ade­n­ovirus vac­cine could be ef­fec­tive enough to ri­val mR­NA jabs from Mod­er­na and Pfiz­er.

The Sput­nik V vac­cine had an ef­fi­ca­cy rate of 91.6% based on the num­ber of Covid-19 cas­es tracked 21 days af­ter the first dose was ad­min­is­tered, ac­cord­ing to re­sults pub­lished in The Lancet. About 20,000 peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ed in the Phase III tri­al.

While As­traZeneca/Ox­ford and John­son & John­son are al­so tak­ing an ade­n­ovirus ap­proach, they’ve re­port­ed much low­er ef­fi­ca­cy rates. As­traZeneca said the av­er­age ef­fi­ca­cy across their full study was 70%, while J&J re­cent­ly re­port­ed 66% ef­fi­ca­cy. Mod­er­na and Pfiz­er/BioN­Tech achieved 94.1% and 95% ef­fi­ca­cy rates, re­spec­tive­ly.

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