Emergency use approval for Sputnik V vaccine

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories (DRL) has applied for emergency use authorisation with the Indian drug regulator for Sputnik V vaccine. Earlier, DRL had indicated that it aimed to launch the vaccine in March itself if it gets the regulator’s nod.

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This is a vaccine that uses two different human common cold viruses (adenovirus) that have been modified so that the gene causing the cold infection is removed and instead replaced with a code to make SARS-CoV-2’s ‘spike protein’ (the spikes seen on the surface of the virus, which allows it to penetrate the cells and replicate).

The human adenoviruses then act as a vehicle to transport this code to the cells when a person is vaccinated, so that the body can develop an immune response in the form of antibodies to protect it in the event the real virus tries to infect.

The vaccine, named after the first Soviet space satellite, was developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya National Research Institute of Epidemiology and Microbiology.