MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia has given the green light for clinical trials combining a British shot from AstraZeneca and Oxford University with Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine to go ahead, according to Russia’s state drug register. The health ministry’s ethical committee had in May suspended the approval process for the clinical trials, and requested additional information. According to the state drug register, five Russian clinics will hold trials that are set to finish in early March, 2022. Both the AstraZeneca/Oxford and Sputnik V vaccines involve two doses — an initial shot and a booster– but Sputnik V uses different viral vectors for its two shots.
So-called viral vector shots use harmless modified viruses as vehicles, or vectors, to carry genetic information that helps the body build immunity against future infections.
Human trials of a COVID-19 vaccine combining the AstraZeneca/Oxford shot with Sputnik V had already been approved in Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates and Belarus.
(Reporting by Polina Nikolskaya and Vladimir Soldatkin, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
