Sputnik Light booster works against Omicron

Russia's Gamaleya Center said all individuals who had received a single shot of its Sputnik Light booster (third) dose have developed neutralising antibodies against the Omicron Covid-19 variant, even after two-three months of being injected with the vaccine.

"Virus neutralising antibodies against Omicron 2-3 months after the Sputnik Light booster were higher than antibodies developed against the wild-type virus 6 months after the Sputnik V vaccines," Gamaleya said on Friday.

"Based on these data, the expected efficacy of Sputnik V vaccine with Sputnik Light booster against Omicron could be more than 80%," the premier research centre said.


Gamaleya said it expects Sputnik V to provide a strong defence against severe disease and hospitalisation, as the drop in neutralising activity against the Omicron variant is relatively lower than vaccines by rival Pfizer and Moderna.

Data showed that the neutralising activity of Sputnik V against Omicron dropped 12-fold, compared to Pfizer's 41-fold and Moderna's 49-84-fold, it said.

"Sputnik V has demonstrated 3-7x less of a reduction in virus neutralising activity against Omicron as compared to data from producers of other vaccines," it said.

Sputnik V vaccine uses different human adenoviral vectors AD26 and AD5 for its first and second dose. Sputnik Light is nothing but the first component (dose) of Sputnik V vaccine.

Gamaleya said it had submitted the preprint of the study to a scientific journal. Dr Reddy's, which is an Indian partner of Russia's sovereign wealth fund RDIF that is commercialising the Sputnik vaccine globally, has sought approval from the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to initiate phase-3 trial of Sputnik Light as a booster or third dose.