Sputnik V shows strong protection against Omicron Variant: Joint Italian-Russian study.
According to a study conducted by the Spallanzani Institute in Italy, the Sputnik V vaccine has demonstrated strong protection against the Omicron variant, with over two times higher virus-neutralizing activity than the Pfizer vaccine Russian Direct Investment Fund.
The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya Center) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund on Thursday said that two doses of Sputnik V provide more than two times higher geometric mean titers (GMT) of virus-neutralizing antibodies to the Omicron variant of Covid than two doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher three months after vaccination).
The study was conducted at the leading Italian research institute for infectious diseases by a joint Italian-Russian team of researchers representing the Institute and the Gamaleya Center in the identical laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus-neutralizing activity (VNA) against Wuhan variant, said a report.
Among the top quartile of individuals with high RBD-specific IgG antibodies, 100 percent of those vaccinated with Sputnik V could neutralize the Omicron variant compared to 83.3 percent of individuals vaccinated with Pfizer. Among all samples, 74.2 percent of Sputnik V-vaccinated sera were able to balance Omicron vs. 56.9 percent for Pfizer-vaccinated, it said.
Alexander Ginsburg, Director of the National Research Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology, said: “The joint study by the Gamaleya Center and Spallanzani Institute confirmed the results obtained in our separate study published in December 2021. The hard scientific data proves Sputnik V has higher virus-neutralizing activity against Omicron as compared to other vaccines and will play a major role in the global fight against this new contagious variant.”
“Results of the study in Italy confirm Sputnik V offers the strongest protection against Omicron. The adenoviral platform has shown high efficacy in fighting mutations of Covid previously. The partnership of different platforms is the key and heterologous (‘mix & match’) boosting with Sputnik Light will help strengthen the efficacy of other vaccines in light of combined Delta and Omicron challenge,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of RDIF.
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