The Chumakov Center explained the difference between KoviVak and Sputnik V

Deputy DIRECTOR of the Chumakov Center, Development Director Konstantin Chernov, on the air of Radio Rossiya, told how the CoviVac vaccine against covid-19 developed by the center differs  from the Sputnik V drug.

KoviVac belongs to the classical type of vaccines - it is a whole-virion inactivated vaccine, it is produced on the basis of a whole "killed" (inactivated) SARS-CoV-2 CORONAVIRUS. "Sputnik V" from the Moscow Center. Gamaleya is a vector vaccine, where two different types of human adenovirus are used as a vector: they have an embedded fragment of the SARS-CoV-2 gene that encodes one of the proteins of the virus, namely the S-protein.

According to Chernov, in the case of vector vaccines, the emphasis is on an increased concentration of S-protein, “just to which we [in the Chumakov center], in turn, do not appeal.” In people who have been vaccinated with the CoviVac vaccine, but have not had contact with the "live" SARS-CoV-2 virus, experts record a very high level of antibodies, "the body is mobilized literally in a matter of hours," he said.

“If we introduce the body to only a part of a pathogen, then, accordingly, it will react only to this part. In our case, the body sees several proteins at once and reacts to them,” said Chumakov, deputy director of the center.