AstraZeneca To Use Components of the Russian Sputnik V Vaccine

The British firm AstraZeneca has accepted a proposal from the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) and the N.F. Gamaleya Research Center said it and will begin clinical trials of its COVID-19 vaccine candidate in combination with the Sputnik V vaccine's adenoviral vector of the 26th serotype by the end of 2020. Among the leading vaccines against coronavirus at the moment, only Sputnik V has the technology of two different vectors.

The scheme using two different adenoviral vectors for primary and secondary immunization, which is a unique and fundamental development of specialists from the N.N. N.F. Gamalea, allows you to avoid the immunity to the first vector, which forms after the first immunization, and thereby increase the effectiveness of the second injection and form long-term immunity.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the RDIF, commented in a press release: 'AstraZeneca's decision to conduct a study using one of the two vectors of the Sputnik V vaccine is an important step towards joining forces in the fight against the pandemic.'