Alexander Gintsburg, the director of the Gamaleya Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology, said that the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine showed high efficiency against the Omicron variant, Sputnik reported on Friday.
Gintsburg explained that the two-dose Russian vaccine can be effective more than the other vaccine brands such as Pfizer, and Moderna, saying: "Sputnik V has demonstrated 3-7x less of a reduction in virus neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to data from other vaccine producers: 11.8 times decrease of VNA for Sputnik V in contrast with 41 times decrease for Pfizer-BioNTech and 49-84 times decrease for Moderna."
He added that the vaccine can provide long term protection against severe symptoms by Omicron, revealing: "Sputnik V’s long-lasting T-cell immunity contributes to 80% efficacy against Delta on months 6-8 compared with efficacy of less than 29% demonstrated by certain mRNA vaccines after 6 months."
It is worthy to mention, the Director of the Foreign Affairs’ Economic Cooperation Department Dmitry Birichevsky said on Tuesday that the state is expecting World Health Organization (WHO) approval for the Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine in the first half of 2022.
Birichevsky explained, “We have been actively helping the Russian Direct Investment Fund to promote our vaccine Sputnik V in international markets. This is constant routine work, which requires attention and cooperation with embassies.
He added, “We still hope that the vaccine will be requalified by the WHO at some stage. I think it will be in the first half of next year.”
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