Russia's Sputnik V doses will be priced 'much lower' than Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

Russia’s Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine will be priced "much lower" than the vaccines of US drug firms Pfizer and Moderna, as per Sputnik V’s Twitter account. On November 22, the Russian vaccine company announced the price of the vaccine per dose will be lower than Moderna and Pfizer, which are priced at $25-$37 and $19.50 respectively. Russia was the first country to register the world’s first COVID-19 vaccine, however, earlier this month Pfizer and Moderna also announced over 95 per cent efficacy against the deadly COVID-19 infection. 

Sputnik V is developed by the Gamaleya National Research Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology of the Russian Healthcare Ministry. Last week, Russia had informed that its vaccine Sputnik V is 92 per cent effective at protecting people from COVID-19 according to the first interim analysis. 

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Sputnik V 92% effective against COVID

Russian President Vladimir Putin had also touted the efficacy of its Sputnik V but RDIF said on November 11 that 40,000 volunteers are currently part of the phase 3 trials, out of which at least 20,000 have been vaccinated with the first dose and over 16,000 have completed both doses. The 92% efficacy of the Russian COVID-19 vaccine is based on the data analysis 21 days after all the volunteers receive their first injection. Moreover, the country’s wealth fund also said that during the tests, “no unexpected adverse events were identified” but monitoring is still ongoing.  

However, the chances of contracting COVID-19 among people who were injected with Sputnik V were 92% lower among all the people vaccinated. RDIF also said that currently, the phase 3 trials are taking place in “Republic of Belarus, the United Arab Emirates, Venezuela and a number of other countries, as well as phase II-III in India, has also been approved and are being conducted.”

Meanwhile, the RDIF and South Korea’s biotech company GL Rapha also recently announced that it will manufacture 150 million doses of Sputnik V. In an official release, the pharmaceutical firm said that it will commence production of the world’s first registered COVID-19 vaccine in December 2020, and will start inoculating population by January 2021. RDIF and GL Rapha will also initiate a global distribution of 150 million doses in the year 2021.

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