New Delhi, Mar 24 (IANS): The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) on Wednesday announced the results of a survey on vaccine preferences, which showed that Russia is the most trusted vaccine producer alongside the US and Sputnik V being the most recognisable vaccine.
According to 'YouGov' survey on 9,417 respondents from nine countries, 54 per cent of respondents considered Russia the most trusted vaccine producer alongside the US and leaving the UK behind, when asked to choose the three countries they trusted the most to produce a vaccine.
Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus, is the most recognizable one - over 7 in 10 (74 per cent) of those surveyed have heard of the Russian vaccine.
The survey was conducted between February 18 and March 3 by YouGov, the leading UK-based company in market research and data analytics in Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. Residents of India, Brazil, Mexico, the Philippines, Vietnam, Argentina, Algeria, the UAE and Serbia participated in the poll.
More than 2 billion people, or over 25 per cent of the world's population, live in these countries.
"We have received a very good response from the Indian respondents in this YouGov survey. Sputnik V is the most recognisable vaccine in India (57 per cent of respondents), ahead of Pfizer and AstraZeneca, not only because of its safety and high efficacy, but also because of its differentiating features, such as ease of transportation and storage and affordable price, fully meet expectation of Indian respondents", said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund.
"In fact, Sputnik V ranked first among foreign vaccines as the most trustworthy. In addition, the fact that India is emerging as the most important manufacturing hub for Sputnik V further boosted the confidence of the people of the country in the Russian vaccine," he said.
Key findings of the poll are that Russia is the most trusted vaccine producing country, alongside the US and leaving the UK behind.
When asked to choose the three countries they trusted the most to produce a vaccine in three respondents (33%) among those who have made their choice, would prefer to be vaccinated with Sputnik V.
This is the second most-preferred vaccine after Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (37 per cent).
About 74 per cent of those surveyed have heard of the Russian vaccine; Pfizer/ BioNTech is in second place (69 per cent), while AstraZeneca (University of Oxford) holds third position with 60 per cent.
Almost half (47 per cent) of the respondents who have made their choice only consider a minimum vaccine efficacy level of 90 per cent or more acceptable for their vaccination (for example, Sputnik V, which has a proven efficacy of 91.6 per cent).
An overwhelming number of respondents (84 per cent) are be willing to postpone their vaccination with a less effective vaccine of around 60 per cent, for a vaccine with a higher efficacy of over 90 per cent.
About 77 per cent of respondents believe that governments should provide equal access to all the different vaccines for the population and give everyone a choice which vaccine to have for vaccination, according to the survey.
The subject expert committee of the Indian drug regulator is expected to take up Dr Reddy's Laboratories' application seeking approval for the Russian coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V this week. The subject expert committee had, last month, rejected the application citing lack of data.