Sputnik-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine trials to start in Azerbaijan, MidEast

Human trials of a Covid-19 vaccine combining a British shot from AstraZeneca and Oxford University with Russia's Sputnik V vaccine will begin next week in Azerbaijan and some Middle Eastern nations, a Russian official said on Thursday.
 

AstraZeneca said in December it would start clinical trials to test combining the two vaccines to see if this could boost the efficacy of the British shot.
 

Both vaccines involve two doses, an initial shot and a booster, and use harmless adenoviruses as vehicles, or vectors, to carry genetic instructions into the body to prompt cells to produce antibodies. Sputnik, however, uses different