MOSCOW, October 11. /TASS/. The article in Britain’s The Sun claiming that research from the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine was used for the development of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine is entirely fake and has no scientific basis, Russia’s Direct Investment Fund (DRIF) said on Sputnik V’s official Twitter account.
"U.K. media reports <…> is another fake news and a blatant lie based on anonymous sources. The story, originated by The Sun tabloid, is pushed by those opposing the success of one of the world’s most effective and safe vaccines against COVID-19 and we find such attacks highly unethical as they undermine the global vaccination effort. They also make absolutely no sense scientifically as Sputnik V and AstraZeneca use different platforms," it said.
The RDIF noted that Sputnik V is based on a well-studied human adenoviral platform. "Developers of Sputnik V, the Gamaleya Center, used the same human adenoviral platform for their earlier groundbreaking research over the years, including vaccines against Ebola in 2017 and MERS in 2019, to quickly develop Russia’s vaccine against COVID-19," it said. "In contrast, AstraZeneca uses chimpanzee adenoviral vector for its vaccine rather than the human vector used by Sputnik V."
The RDIF also stressed that the Sputnik V and AstraZeneca teams conduct joint clinical tests of combo uses of the two vaccines and released data on the efficacy and safety.
"Rather than spreading fake stories, the UK media and government services should better protect the reputation of AstraZeneca, a safe and efficient vaccine that is constantly attacked by competitors in the media with facts taken out of context," it emphasized.
The Sun published an article on October 10 alleging that Russia’s intelligence services had obtained information about AstraZeneca’s vaccine composition and this data was used later to develop Russia’s Sputnik V.