Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine will be launched in India by December, news agency ANI quoted Kirill Dmitriev, CEO, Russian Direct Investment Fund as saying on Wednesday.
Sputnik Light vaccine is based on human adenovirus serotype 26, which is the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine.
One-shot Sputnik Light is a highly effective vaccine when used both on standalone basis and applied as a booster. The latest findings by the Gamaleya Center based on data from 28,000 subjects in Moscow have demonstrated Sputnik Light vaccine administered standalone has 70% efficacy against infection from the Delta variant of coronavirus during the first three months after vaccination.
The vaccine is 75% effective among subjects under the age of 60.
Efficacy of one-shot 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% against infection and over 94% against hospitalization.
A one-shot vaccination regimen of Sputnik Light has a number of key advantages, including ease of administering the vaccine, monitoring and more flexible re-vaccination schedule when used as a booster.
Sputnik Light has demonstrated a superior efficacy compared with some two-shot vaccines, which have shown a major decline in efficacy against the Delta variant to less than 50% five months after injection. Standalone use of Sputnik Light also provides much higher efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations.
Recently, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced hat he had been revaccinated against COVID-19 with Sputnik Light.
"Today, based on your recommendation and the recommendations of your colleagues, I got one more shot with Sputnik Light. This is called revaccination," Putin said during a meeting with Denis Logunov, deputy director of the Gamaleya research center.
(With PTI and ANI inputs)
