The Oxford vaccine and Russia’s Sputnik vaccine are to join forces to see if a combination of the two jabs will work even better.
The announcement of a “mix and match” trial signals a thaw in relations. Two months ago Russian officials derided Oxford’s offering, which uses a benign chimpanzee virus, as the “monkey vaccine”. At the same time, British officials accused Russia of a disinformation campaign.
Now the scientists will work together. The idea is that by using different vaccines, each shot may prompt a stronger immune response.
Early results from the final-stage trial of the Sputnik vaccine showed it was 90 per cent effective. Findings that involved more cases with the Oxford vaccine indicated it was 62 per cent effective in one regimen