The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia's sovereign wealth fund) announced the data from Paraguay's Ministry of Health on the one shot Russian Sputnik Light vaccine (the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine) demonstrating high safety profile and a 93.5% efficacy, as reported during the ongoing vaccination campaign in the country.

The one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine has proven to be highly effective against COVID among more than 320,000 subjects who had received the vaccine based on the data collected by July 30, 2021. The data also indicates a high safety profile of Sputnik Light:

Thanks to its safety and efficacy, the single-component Sputnik Light vaccine is now both used on a standalone basis and also studied in combination with vaccines from other producers in a number of countries.

The heterogeneous boosting approach ("vaccine cocktail" using human adenovirus serotype 26 as the first component and human adenovirus serotype 5 as the second component) was at the core of Sputnik V, the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus. With this approach proving successful in creating a longer and more durable immunity against the coronavirus, RDIF took the lead in initiating partnerships with other vaccine producers to conduct joint studies of a combination of the first component of Sputnik V with foreign vaccines.

In particular, the initial safety results of the world's first study of a combination between Sputnik Light and the AstraZeneca vaccine in Azerbaijan demonstrates a high safety profile for the combined use of the vaccines with no serious adverse events or cases of coronavirus after vaccination.

Also RDIF, Ministry of Health of Argentina, Ministry of Science of Argentina and CONICET are conducting a study for the evaluation of the immune response and safety of heterogeneous regimens combining Sputnik Light and vaccines produced by AstraZeneca, Sinopharm and Moderna in the city and province of Buenos Aires, as well as San Luis, Cordoba and La Rioja provinces. The results of the study will be published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), said: "The one-shot Sputnik Light vaccine enables authorities of Paraguay to speed up the vaccination of the population and accelerate the creation of herd immunity. As demonstrated by data from the Ministry of Health of Paraguay, as well as and a number of other countries around the world, Sputnik Light has a high safety profile and one of the best efficacy numbers as compared to many two-shot vaccines."

Some key features of the vaccine are as follows:  Sputnik Light is the first component (recombinant human adenovirus serotype number 26 (rAd26)) of Sputnik V the world's first registered vaccine against coronavirus. It has proven effective against all new strains of coronavirus, as demonstrated by the Gamaleya Center during laboratory tests. It is compatible with standard vaccine storage and logistics requirements. The vaccine is based on a well-studied human adenoviral vector platform that has proven to be safe and effective, with no long-term side effects, as confirmed in over 250 clinical trials conducted globally over the past two decades (while the history of use of human adenoviruses in vaccine development started in 1953).