Russia has cleared clinical trials on Sputnik V …

The Russian Ministry of Health on Monday authorized clinical trials of a “Light version coronavirus vaccine Sputnik V. This new version would only be dose and therefore, it would allow many more people to be vaccinated despite production constraints.

“Open trials of the safety, tolerance and immunogenicity of the drug Sputnik Light in the prevention of infections caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus,” the Health portfolio reported, according to the Sputnik news agency. The trials will include 150 volunteers and will end on December 31, 2021.

The “light” version of Sputnik V

On August 11, Russia registered the first vaccine against the coronavirus, called Sputnik V and developed by the Nikolai Gamaleya Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology.

The drug uses two different vectors based on human adenovirus. The developers noted that this generates a stronger and longer immune response than vaccines based on the same vector for two doses.

The ‘light’ version of the vaccine includes the first component that will only be administered once, which will immunize tens of millions of people quickly and amid limited industrial capacity.

The developers predict that the drug will have a efficiency up to 85% and a shorter protection period compared to Sputnik V, which demonstrated 91.4% efficacy.

Russian vaccine has already been applied to 1.5 million people

Russian authorities have pointed out that the Sputnik V vaccine has already been applied to 1.5 million people worldwide. Arseni Palaguin, spokesman for Russian sovereign wealth fund RDIF, gave this figure without detailing the distribution of people vaccinated by country.

“We cannot say how many received it in Russia and how many in the rest of the world,” Palaguin said, noting that in addition to Russia, vaccines are given in Argentina and Belarus.

Last week Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko said 800,000 Russians had been vaccinated and 1.5 million doses distributed nationwide.

A Murashko collaborator announced on Russian television that they would soon begin discussions with the World Health Organization (WHO) to include Sputnik V in a list of vaccines that can be used in emergency situations.

Since the start of the pandemic, 3.42 million cases have been detected in Russia and 62,000 deaths, according to official statistics, which only take into account deaths due to Covid-19 as a direct cause and confirmed by an autopsy. Other surveys put the death toll at 186,000.