Moscow: Russia's Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya Center) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund announced the development of the Sputnik V vaccine specifically adapted against Delta and Omicron variants of coronavirus.
Over the course of the pandemic, the Gamaleya Center has been consistently studying the new emerging variants of SARS-CoV-2 and adapting Sputnik V to them accordingly. The new version of Sputnik V has been Delta- and Omicron-adapted as Omicron is currently the dominant variant around the globe. This new version is also addressing the L-452-R mutation in Omicron BA5 variant which was not present in the BA1 variant.
"The Delta and Omicron-adapted version of Sputnik V is the most promising version of the vaccine specifically adapted to new variants as compared to those tailored against the combination of the original strain and Omicron variant. The Sputnik V vaccine adapted against the Delta and Omicron variants provides for a significant reduction in the viral load in the lungs of animals infected with the Omicron BA5 variant," the Russian medical research institute said in a statement.
The existing version of Sputnik V shows excellent results in preventing hospitalization and death caused by Omicron. A study conducted by a team of Russian scientists including representatives of the City Clinical Hospital No. 67 named after L.A.
Vorokhobov and the Gamaleya Center has demonstrated Sputnik V's efficacy against hospitalisation caused by Omicron for those vaccinated with 3 or 4 components (re-vaccination with Sputnik Light or Sputnik V after Sputnik V) was 97 per cent and 99.4 per cent against critical cases. These results have been published in June 2022 in the Vaccines leading peer-reviewed medical journal.
Sputnik V has become the most exported pharmaceutical product in Russian history being one of the safest and most effective vaccines against coronavirus in the world.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund invested in the development and production of both Sputnik V and Sputnik Light, which have helped save millions of lives globally. Sputnik V has been authorized in 71 countries with total population of over 4 billion people. Sputnik Light has been approved in more than 30 countries.
Sputnik V and Sputnik Light are based on a safe human adenoviral vector platform proven in more than 30 years and are not associated with serious adverse events such as myocarditis or pericarditis.
The high safety and efficacy of Sputnik V and Sputnik Light have been confirmed by more than 50 clinical studies and data compiled during national vaccination programs in various parts of the world, including Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
Research on the Sputnik V vaccine has been published in leading international peer-reviewed medical journals, including The Lancet, Nature, Vaccines, Cell Reports Medicine and others. —ANI