The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) today announced the Russian single-component Sputnik Light vaccine against coronavirus has been approved by the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP) of UAE as a universal booster shot for all the vaccines against coronavirus that are used in the country.

Booster dose is available to all residents aged 18+ and can be applied six months after the second dose of any other vaccine administered in UAE.

Sputnik Light vaccine is based on human adenovirus serotype 26 which is the first component of the Sputnik V vaccine. The one-shot vaccine was authorized in UAE in October 2021.

In January 2021 UAE’s regulatory authorities also authorized the two-dose Sputnik V. Both Sputnik Light and Sputnik V vaccines have been approved by MOHAP under the emergency use authorization procedure.

One-shot Sputnik Light is a highly effective vaccine when used both on standalone basis and applied as a booster. The latest findings by the Gamaleya Center based on data from 28,000 subjects in Moscow have demonstrated Sputnik Light vaccine administered standalone has 70% efficacy against infection from the Delta variant of coronavirus during the first three months after vaccination. The vaccine is 75% effective among subjects under the age of 60.

Efficacy of one-shot Sputnik Light as a booster against Delta variant for other vaccines will be close to the efficacy against the Delta variant of the Sputnik V vaccine: over 83% against infection and over 94% against hospitalization.

A one-shot vaccination regimen of Sputnik Light has a number of key advantages, including ease of administering the vaccine, monitoring and more flexible re-vaccination schedule when used as a booster.

Sputnik Light has demonstrated a superior efficacy compared with some two-shot vaccines, which have shown a major decline in efficacy against the Delta variant to less than 50% five months after injection. Standalone use of Sputnik Light also provides much higher efficacy against severe disease and hospitalizations.

Sputnik Light has been proven to be safe and highly effective by real-world vaccination data. In particular, the vaccine has demonstrated efficacy of between 78.6-83.7% among the elderly as confirmed by the Ministry of Health of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Paraguay’s Ministry of Health also found Sputnik Light to be 93.5% effective during the country’s ongoing vaccination campaign.