The Gamaleya National Research Center of Epidemiology and Microbiology (Gamaleya Center) and the Russian Direct Investment Fund on Thursday said that 2 doses of Sputnik V provide more than 2 times higher geometric mean titers (GMT) of virus neutralising antibodies to the Omicron variant of Covid than 2 doses of Pfizer vaccine (2.1 times higher in total and 2.6 times higher 3 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 equal laboratory conditions on comparable sera samples from individuals vaccinated with Sputnik V and Pfizer with a similar level of IgG antibodies and virus neutralising 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 were able to neutralise the Omicron variant in comparison to 83.3 percent of individuals vaccinated with Pfizer. Among all samples, 74.2 percent of Sputnik V-vaccinated sera were able to neutralise Omicron vs 56.9 percent for Pfizer-vaccinated, it said. Alexander Gintsburg, 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 neutralising activity against Omicron as compared to other vaccines and will play a major role in the global fight against this new contagious variant."
