The FDA approved the emergency use of the Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the emergency use of Russia’s Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine in the Philippines.
Russia’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine was the second Russia-made COVID-19 vaccine to be granted emergency use authorization (EUA) in the country, next to Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine.
The said vaccine was also the second single-dose COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in the Philippines, next to Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine.
READ ALSO: Russia OKs Use Of Single-dose Sputnik Light COVID-19 Vaccine
On Monday, FDA Director-General Eric Domingo confirmed to Rappler that the Food and Drug Administration had granted EUA for Russia’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
Domingo said in a text message to Rappler that the EUA was approved last August 20, 2021.
Russia’s Sputnik Light COVID-19 vaccine was a human adenoviral vector platform vaccine developed by Gamaleya Research Institute. It was a single-dose COVID-19 vaccine just like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID-19 vaccine, which was previously the only single-dose COVID-19 vaccine approved for emergency use in the Philippines.
According to the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), Sputnik Light had an efficacy of 79.4 percent and its cold storage temperature requirement was 2ºC to 8ºC.
READ ALSO: FDA OKs Sputnik V COVID-19 Vaccine For Emergency Use In PH
Sputnik Light was different from Sputnik V, which was also manufactured by Gamaleya Research Institute. Earlier, Russia’s two-dose Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine was approved for emergency use and had already been rolled out for jabs.
The emergency approval gave the Philippine government another option for procuring COVID-19 vaccines as it aimed to inoculate 70 million Filipinos by the end of 2021 in order to achieve herd immunity.
So far, the Philippines had vaccinated 30 million with at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
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