Covid-19: Moderna, Sputnik edge out Pfizer in new vaccine effectiveness study

The Moderna Inc. and Russian Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccines both edged the version from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE in effectiveness in a large-scale study of five different immunisation shots.

Hungarian researchers found that Moderna's vaccine was 88.7 per cent effective in protecting against coronavirus infection and 93.6 per cent effective against Covid-related death, compared with 85.7 per cent and 95.4 per cent, respectively, for Sputnik.

Pfizer came in third, scoring 83.3 per cent and 90.6 per cent, respectively, according to the paper published on the Clinical Microbiology and Infection medical journal website.

The research reviewed five vaccines' effectiveness in people at least seven days after they received their second dose. Data from more than 3.7 million vaccinated people over 16 were examined from January to June this year.

Pfizer was administered most frequently to 1.5 million people, followed by China’s Sinopharm at 895,465, Russia’s Sputnik V at 820,560, AstraZeneca at 304,138 and Moderna at 222,892, according to the study.

Pfizer and China’s Sinopharm had the highest share of vaccines administered to those aged 65 and over, while Sputnik had the lowest share, data showed.

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AstraZeneca had 71.5 per cent effectiveness against infection and 74.5 percent against Covid-related death, while Sinopharm had 68.7 per cent effectiveness against infection and 87.8 per cent against death.

Both AstraZeneca and Sinopharm had less than 50 per cent effectiveness against Covid-19 infection in people aged 85 and older, according to the study. For the same age group, Sputnik had a 90.9 per cent effectiveness, while Moderna and Pfizer had 84.1 per cent and 74.3 per cent, respectively.

• Europe