NEW DELHI — Research by the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology and the Russian Direct Investment Fund has found that the Sputnik V vaccine showed strong results on neutralizing the activity of sera from individuals against new variants of SARS-CoV-2.
“Vaccination with Sputnik V has produced protective neutralizing titers against new variants, including Alpha B.1.1.7 (first identified in the UK), Beta B.1.351 (first identified in South Africa), Gamma P.1 (first identified in Brazil), Delta B.1.617.2 and B.1.617.3 (first identified in India) and Moscow endemic variants B.1.1.141 and B.1.1.317 with mutations in the Receptor-Binding Domain (RBD),” the organizations said.
Sputnik V has been registered in 67 countries with a total population of over 3.5 billion people.
“The methodology was based on the assessment of virus-neutralizing activity (VNA) using the live virus, which provides the most reliable data and is the gold standard. It compared neutralizing activity of Sputnik V induced sera to the internationally relevant variants with the neutralizing activity to the ancestral B.1.1.1 variant. The sera were obtained from individuals after vaccination with two doses of Sputnik V.”
“Sputnik V pioneered the vaccine cocktail approach with two shots,” Kirill Dmitriev, chief executive officer of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said.
“The tests conducted by the Gamaleya Center have demonstrated the validity of this approach as the virus-neutralizing activity against new strains, which are more dangerous and infectious, remains higher than that of many other vaccines,” said Dmitriev.
“Russian Direct Investment Fund will continue supporting further studies of the efficacy of Sputnik V against new strains while also analyzing opportunities to partner with other leading vaccine producers for developing vaccine cocktails using the first shot of Sputnik V.”
However, virus-neutralizing activity assay is not directly related to the effectiveness of a vaccine.
“The data confirms that Sputnik V remains protective against newly detected variants. Notably, Sputnik V demonstrated significantly less of a reduction in its virus-neutralizing activity against several variants compared to data from other vaccine producers, which had earlier confirmed the efficacy of their vaccines against new variants of coronavirus,” the organizations said.
The Gamaleya Center and Russian Direct Investment Fund are also studying new opportunities to develop vaccine cocktails jointly with other leading Covid-19 vaccine producers using the first component of Sputnik V.
“Our studies have demonstrated strong results of Sputnik V against new variants of SARS-CoV-2. We receive more evidence of the ability of coronavirus to transform and mutate across the globe,” said Alexander Gintsburg, director of the Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology.
“Today, Sputnik V is one of the most effective vaccines against both original and new variants of coronavirus thanks to its unique approach of using two different adenoviral vectors as a delivery mechanism.”
The real-world data was obtained during the vaccination of the population in several countries, including Mexico, Argentina, Serbia, Bahrain, Hungary, San-Marino, United Aram Emirates, and others.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund is also in talks with the Serum Institute of India to start production in India by September, as per a press release from the fund.
(With inputs from ANI)
(Edited by Abinaya Vijayaraghavan and Praveen Pramod Tewari)
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