MOSCOW, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Britain's AstraZeneca
will start clinical trials combining its own vaccine with
Russia's Sputnik V vaccine candidate by the end of the year, the
head of Russia's RDIF sovereign wealth fund said on Friday.
The official, Kirill Dmitriev, said in a statement that
Russia was determined to start joint production of the new
combined vaccine with AstraZeneca once it had proven its
efficacy in clinical trials.
AstraZeneca announced earlier on Friday it would investigate
combining its own experimental vaccine with Sputnik V, a move
Russian scientists have suggested could sharply boost efficacy.
Dmitriev said that cooperation between scientists from
different countries would be decisive in beating the pandemic.
(Reporting by Andrew Osborn; writing by Tom Balmforth; editing
by Andrew Osborn)