Sputnik V is effective against the British variant …

The Russian Sputnik V effective against the British variant of the coronavirus. Its effectiveness has been corroborated by the Russian Vektor Center for Virology and Biotechnology, which stated that the same goes for the EpiVacCorona, the other vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 developed in this country.

Confirmation of the effectiveness of the two vaccines against the variant which defeated the UK for its greatest contagiousness and which has spread to almost the entire world was released by Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian consumer protection agency.

The British variant is also present in Argentina. A report from the Nation’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation confirmed a few days ago that even this community transmission of this variant was already detected.

“The protective effect has been shown by neutralizing reactions using serum from people who have received Sputnik V and EpiVacCorona and have developed antibodies against SARS-CoV-2,” he said on his account Facebook Rospotrebnadzor.

“Serums from vaccinated people effectively neutralize both the UK variant of the coronavirus and the coronavirus itself, which does not contain all the characteristic mutations of the British strain, ”said the Russian federal agency.

Rospotrebnadzor did not specify the number of people analyzed in the study carried out by the State Center of Virology and Biotégnology Véktor, which was in charge of the development of EpiVacCorona.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday tasked the government with analyzing the effectiveness of Russian vaccines against new variants of the coronavirus. The president also ordered that if it was necessary to adapt them, the investigations be deepened.

The British variant of the coronavirus is also present in Russia. It was detected last December. The Vektor Center itself isolated it and proceeded to study it.

Sputnik V was registered in Russia last August and has a 91.6% efficiency. This emerges from analyzes of phase III clinical trials published this month in the journal “The Lancet”.

The trials of the EpiVacCorona ended at the end of last September and in October it was registered in Russia. On November 16, the health ministry authorized post-registration testing in volunteers over 60 and testing of 3,000 volunteers aged 18 to 60. Last month, Rospotrebnadzor told Russian media that this second Russian vaccine is 100% effective.

Kiril Dmitriev, director of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), had already anticipated that “according to our data, Sputnik V will be as effective against the new variant of coronavirus found in Europe as against existing strains”.

The Gamaleya Institute signed an agreement with AstraZeneca late last year to jointly pursue the development and refinement of coronavirus vaccines. Dmitriev also confirmed weeks ago the formation of an international committee of experts – among them Argentines Omar Sued and Carlos Zala – who will advise on new stages in the development of Sputnik V.

“We are open to an international agreement so that the Sputnik V vaccine is available in different parts of the world. Even in Western countries, where there are people with a history of strong allergic reactions and who are not suitable for receiving other vaccines, ”he told the director of RDIF.

On Friday last week, the fourth Aerolineas Argentinas flight arrived in the country with 400,000 1 doses of Sputnik V. It is expected that as of this week, nearly a million people could be vaccinated with these doses and with 580 thousand more from Oxford / AstraZeneca. arriving from India.