Sputnik Light Expected To Be Authorised In India As Standalone Vaccine & Universal Booster

By OB Bureau On Dec 6, 2021

New Delhi: Sputnik Light, Russia’s one-shot vaccine based on human adenovirus serotype 26 is expected to be authorised in India soon as a standalone vaccine and a universal booster, confirmed Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) that financially supports the vaccine.

Talks to begin production of Sputnik Light in India are nearing completion, Russian news agency TASS quoted External Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov as saying on Monday.

Lavrov arrived in Delhi with Russian President Vladimir Putin and took part in the inaugural Indo-Russia ‘2+2’ dialogue along with his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar. Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Russian Defence Minister Gen Sergey Shoigu also participated in the bilateral talks.

“A major partner of RDIF, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, has conducted additional clinical trials of Sputnik Light in India. Positive data from these trials have also been presented to India’s regulator,” RDIF said.

Data from 28,000 subjects in Moscow has demonstrated that Sputnik Light administered standalone has 70 per cent efficacy against infection from the Delta variant of coronavirus during the first three months after vaccination.

The vaccine is 75 per cent effective among subjects under the age of 60. Efficacy of Sputnik Light as a booster against Delta variant for other vaccines will be close to the efficacy against the Delta variant of the Sputnik V vaccine: over 83 per cent against infection and over 94 per cent against hospitalisation, according to media reports.

RDIF claims that Sputnik Light has proven to be safe and highly effective by real-world vaccination data. In particular, the vaccine has demonstrated efficacy of between 78.6-83.7 per cent among the elderly as confirmed by the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Paraguay’s Ministry of Health also found Sputnik Light to be 93.5 per cent effective during the country’s ongoing vaccination campaign.