UAE announces research partnership on Russian vaccine ‘Sputnik V’

Our correspondent

The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) in Al Ain, Abu Dhabi, is supporting the clinical trial of the novel COVID-19 vaccine ‘Sputnik V’, developed by the Gamaleya Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology in Russia. The vaccine is the world’s first registered vaccine based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector-based platform.

This comes soon after the UAE had approved the Russian vaccine for emergency medical use on January 22. Sputnik V will be the third vaccine to be deployed in the UAE after China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the U.S.- and German-developed Pfizer-BioNTech jab were made available to the public in December. The UAE hopes to have half its residents inoculated by the end of March.

Sputnik V is reaching the end of clinical testing process and has 40,000 volunteers currently involved in a phase III trial in Russia. Interim results have shown the vaccine has 92 percent efficacy after the second dose.

Study results have demonstrated the effectiveness of the vaccine in triggering a strong antibody response against the virus, its safety for use, and its compliance with international safety and effectiveness standards.

Phase III trials have been announced in selected partner countries including the UAE, which has already recruited more than 500 volunteers. Volunteers in the UAE trial are receiving two doses of the vaccine three weeks apart at Tawam Hospital in the capital.

The volunteers will participate for a year and will be tested at regular intervals to determine how effective the vaccine is and how long it remains effective. Two of the laboratory tests will be conducted by UAEU scientists with other tests at Tawam hospital (SEHA) and Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. UAEU will be the first university in the MENA region to study the vaccine and is expected to publish the results of the trial in international peer-reviewed journals.

The Gamaleya National Centre of Epidemiology and Microbiology is named after Nikolai Gamaleya, a pioneer in Russian microbiology. It has also developed vaccines against Ebola, Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), and Influenza.