Honduras authorizes Sputnik V

Honduras authorizes Sputnik V

Moscow, February 24, 2021 – The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund) announces the approval of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against coronavirus by the Sanitary Regulation Agency (Agencia de Regulación Sanitaria, ARSA) of the Republic of Honduras.

The vaccine was approved under the emergency use authorization procedure. Honduras has become the 36th country in the world to approve Sputnik V. The vaccine is one of the world's top three coronavirus vaccines in terms of the number of approvals issued by government regulators.

Sputnik V had been approved earlier in Russia, Belarus, Argentina, Bolivia, Serbia, Algeria, Palestine, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan, Hungary, UAE, Iran, Republic of Guinea, Tunisia, Armenia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Republika Srpska (entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina), Lebanon, Myanmar, Pakistan, Mongolia, Bahrain, Montenegro, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Gabon, San-Marino, Ghana, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Guyana and Egypt.

Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said:

“Sputnik V is a vaccine for all humankind and its authorization in 36 countries proves its important contribution in fighting the pandemic at the global level. Honduras today joined a number of other nations in Latin America approving the use of Sputnik V and we are ready to help our partners to protect the population with one of the best vaccines in the world.”

Sputnik V has a number of key advantages:

·        Efficacy of Sputnik V is 91.6% as confirmed by the data published in the Lancet, one of the world's oldest and most respected medical journals; it is one of only three vaccines in the world with efficacy of over 90%; Sputnik V provides full protection against severe cases of COVID-19.

·        The Sputnik V vaccine is based on a proven and well-studied platform of human adenoviral vectors, which cause the common cold and have been around for thousands of years.

·        Sputnik V uses two different vectors for the two shots in a course of vaccination, providing immunity with a longer duration than vaccines using the same delivery mechanism for both shots.

·        The safety, efficacy and lack of negative long-term effects of adenoviral vaccines have been proven by more than 250 clinical studies over two decades.

·        The developers of the Sputnik V vaccine are working collaboratively with AstraZeneca on a joint clinical trial to improve the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine.

·        There are no strong allergies caused by Sputnik V.

·        The storage temperature of Sputnik V at +2+8 C means it can be stored in a conventional refrigerator without any need to invest in additional cold-chain infrastructure.

·        The price of Sputnik V is less than $10 per shot, making it affordable around the world.