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Russia’s Nobelium utilizing USAID’s electronic mail system for hack, Microsoft says

Russia's Nobelium using USAID's email system for hack, Microsoft says

Annette Riedl | Picture Alliance | Getty Images

The Russian hackers believed to be behind the catastrophic SolarWinds attack last year launched another major cyberattack, Microsoft warned Thursday.

Microsoft said in a blog post that the hacking group known as Nobelium attacked over 150 organizations worldwide in the past week, including government agencies, think tanks, consultants and non-governmental organizations.

They sent phishing emails – fake messages designed to trick people into disclosing sensitive information or downloading malicious software – to more than 3,000 email accounts, the tech giant said.

At least 25% of the target organizations are involved in international development, humanitarian and human rights work, wrote Tom Burt, corporate vice president of customer security and trust at Microsoft.

“These attacks appear to be a continuation of Nobelium’s multiple intelligence-gathering efforts to target government foreign policy agencies,” Burt said.

According to Microsoft, organizations in at least 24 countries have been affected, with the US receiving the largest share of attacks.

The violation was discovered three weeks before President Joe Biden’s scheduled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva.

It also comes a month after the US government explicitly stated that the SolarWinds hack was carried out by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), a successor to the KGB’s overseas espionage operations.

The Kremlin said Friday it had no information about the cyber attack and Microsoft needed to answer more questions, including how the attack relates to Russia, Reuters reported. The Kremlin did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

The hack explained

According to Microsoft, Nobelium has gained access to an email marketing account used by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the federal government’s aid agency. The account is managed on a platform called Constant Contact.

Burt said Nobelium used the account to “distribute phishing emails that looked authentic but contained a link that inserted a malicious file when clicked”.

The file contains a backdoor, which Microsoft calls NativeZone, which “can enable a wide variety of activities from stealing data to infecting other computers on a network,” Burt said. Microsoft is in the process of notifying customers who have been targeted.

The SolarWinds attack uncovered in December turned out to be much worse than initially expected. It gave the hackers access to thousands of companies and government agencies that were using SolarWinds IT software.

Microsoft President Brad Smith described the attack as “the biggest and most sophisticated attack the world has ever seen”.

Earlier this month, Russia’s spy chief denied responsibility for the SolarWinds cyberattack, but said he was “flattered” by US and UK allegations that Russian foreign intelligence was behind such a sophisticated hack

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World News

Putin warns towards crossing Russia’s ‘pink strains,’ talks up navy

Elon Musk's offer of Clubhouse chat with Putin is interesting

Russian President Vladimir Putin will attend the expanded ministries of interior in Moscow on February 26, 2020.

Mikhail Svetlov | Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against provoking his country in his annual state of the nation speech on Wednesday and promised swift retaliation against anyone who crossed “red lines”.

Moscow will react “harshly”, “quickly” and “asymmetrically” to foreign provocations, Putin told an audience of top Russian officials and lawmakers, adding that he “hoped” that no foreign actor would cross Russia’s “red lines”, according to Reuters would exceed translation.

Putin also extolled the country’s planned investment in advanced military training, hypersonic weapons and ICBMs. But he also stressed that Russia wants peace and arms control agreements.

The 68-year-old head of state condemned what he called the constant tendency of international actors to blame Russia for wrongdoing and said it had become like a sport.

The comments came in the last half-hour of the 90-minute speech, which mainly focused on Russia’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, as well as domestic economic and social problems.

The speech took place against the background of worsening tensions with the US and the EU and follows the recent imposition of sanctions against Russia by the Biden government for alleged cyber attacks, human rights violations and a Russian military build-up along the border with Ukraine.

During the address, protests took place across Russia in support of imprisoned Putin critic Alexei Navalny, who fell dangerously ill and was taken to a prison hospital after a hunger strike. The news sparked warnings from the US that there would be “consequences” if Russia let Navalny die in prison.

According to OVD-Info, an independent Russian NGO monitoring rallies, over 100 people have so far been arrested during the protests on Wednesday.

In addition, Russia has been accused of orchestrating an attack on a Czech arms dump in 2014, with the Czech Republic deporting 18 Russian diplomats in recent days.

Russia denies that two of its military intelligence agents – the same men believed to have carried out a nerve agent attack on a former spy in the UK in 2018 – carried out the Czech attack, but the news still added to the negative news flow surrounding Putin’s Russia .

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Health

Putin to get coronavirus vaccine; Russia’s vaccine technique in focus

Putin to get coronavirus vaccine; Russia's vaccine strategy in focus

Russian President Vladimir Putin will chair a meeting on May 13, 2020 to focus on assisting the aviation industry and aviation at his land residence in Novo-Ogaryovo, outside Moscow.

Alexey Nikolsky | AFP | Getty Images

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to receive a coronavirus shot on Tuesday as the country’s vaccination strategy takes center stage.

Putin’s vaccination is due one day after commending multimillion-dollar international sales of Russian vaccine Sputnik V Covid. However, the country’s adoption appears to be slow and in stark contrast to the large number of vaccines destined for the international market.

It was reported that Russia’s own manufacturing capacity is low, and Putin appeared to be nodding at it on Monday. He said Russia needs to ramp up domestic vaccine production and that household supplies are a priority, according to Reuters.

He found that 4.3 million people in the country had already received two doses of the vaccine. This is much higher than in the UK, for example, where around 2.3 million people have given both doses to date. However, Russia was the first country in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine (Sputnik V) as early as August 2020, first shot in early December.

However, the Kremlin has not confirmed whether Putin will receive Sputnik V. There are three Russian vaccines and Putin’s spokesman said Monday that the president would be vaccinated with one of them. “All of them are good and reliable,” the spokesman said, according to the AP.

logistics

Russia faces a number of logistical challenges when introducing a vaccine. It is the largest country in the world and has around 144 million inhabitants in an area that stretches across Europe and northern Asia.

In early March, Putin found that all but nine Russian regions had started using the vaccine, with delays related to “problems with logistics, distribution (and) locations,” the Moscow Times reported.

Global data on vaccination programs shows that Russia is lagging behind many other countries in its own domestic rollout, with the number of single doses administered in Russia just above the number of doses administered in Bangladesh, according to Our World in Data.

Vaccination dates are highlighted as Russia was hit so hard by the pandemic: it has recorded the fourth highest number of cases in the world (over 4.4 million) and over 94,000 people have died of Covid in the country, according to Covid at Johns Hopkins University.

Vaccination skepticism

Another major problem hindering Russia’s adoption is citizens’ reluctance to adopt vaccines. Daragh McDowell, head of Europe and senior Russian analyst at Verisk Maplecroft, told CNBC that the country’s lower vaccination rates “are likely due to public unwillingness to be skeptical about the vaccine rather than lack of supply.”

He noted that the latest data from the Levada Center, an independent pollster in Russia, suggests that only 30% of Russians are “ready to get vaccinated, a number that has actually decreased since last year”.

“This is mainly due to concerns about side effects and the inadequate testing of the vaccine. In other words, while the Kremlin received a boost in propaganda by bringing the vaccine out first, it came at the expense of doubts about its safety.” McDowell noticed.

A woman receives the second component of the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) COVID-19 vaccine.

Valentin Sprinchak | TASS | Getty Images

Sputnik V was originally only approved in Russia for those ages 18 to 60, which means that 68-year-old Putin was too old to receive it. However, further studies in seniors found that the vaccine was safe in people 60 and older, and that the age group can now get the shot.

“The fact that Putin waited so long to be vaccinated himself is not going to go unnoticed and has contributed to these doubts,” added McDowell.

“The president’s vaccination will convince some Russians of the vaccine’s effectiveness and safety (but) high levels of social distrust and conspiratorial thinking will mitigate its effects.”

He stressed that the same survey data that showed that 30% of Russians were willing to be vaccinated also showed that nearly two-thirds believed Covid was artificially developed as a biological weapon.

International sales agreements

Another aspect of the Russian vaccine program that has attracted attention is the high number of international sales of its vaccine. On Monday, Putin confirmed that Russia had signed international sales agreements for Sputnik V cans for 700 million people.

RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that backed the development and deployment of Sputnik V, announced Tuesday that Sputnik V has now been approved in 56 countries, with Vietnam being last on the list. Several Eastern European countries such as Hungary and Slovakia have also ordered Sputnik V cans.

In the meantime, the European Medicines Agency launched an ongoing review of Sputnik V earlier this month.

Verisk Maplecroft’s McDowell pointed out that while exporting 700 million cans is “an extremely ambitious figure,” it is likely that licensed products also made overseas, for example in India and South Korea.

Data processing

Russian vaccine Sputnik V was approved by the Russian health authority in August last year before clinical trials were completed, leading to skepticism among experts that it may not meet strict safety and efficacy standards. Some experts argued that the Kremlin is keen to win the race to develop a Covid vaccine, an indictment it has brought against other countries. Russia has repeatedly stated that its vaccine is the target of anti-Russian sentiment.

Russia appeared to be confirmed in early February As an interim analysis of the 20,000-participant Phase 3 clinical trials of the shot was published in the peer-reviewed medical journal The Lancet. The vaccine was found to be 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infections.

In an accompanying article in the Lancet, Ian Jones, Professor of Virology at the University of Reading, England noted that “the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for undue urgency. However, the result reported here is clear and scientific. The principle of vaccination is demonstrated which means another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19. “

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Health

Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is luring Jap Europe, worrying the EU

Russia’s Sputnik vaccine is luring Eastern Europe, worrying the EU

A medical worker holds a syringe with the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) Covid-19 vaccine in his hand.

Alexander Reka | TASS | Getty Images

While the European Union struggles to push coronavirus vaccine rollout in the block of 27, Russia’s Covid shot is proving enticing to its friends in Eastern Europe, creating yet another potential rift in the region.

The Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Slovakia have all expressed an interest in the procurement and use of the Russian vaccine “Sputnik V”, which could undermine an EU-wide approach to the approval and administration of coronavirus vaccines.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis said on Sunday that his country could use the Sputnik V vaccine without the approval of the EU Medicines Agency, the European Medicines Agency.

It comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz received a call last Friday in which they discussed “possible deliveries of the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine to Austria and its possible joint production,” the Kremlin said and found that Austria had initiated the call. Austria has so far stated that it would not bypass the EMA when approving the vaccine.

Hungary, a country within the EU that has close ties to Brussels and whose leader Viktor Orban is considered a close ally of Putin, has shown no such hesitation. It was the first European country to bypass the EMA to approve and purchase the Sputnik V vaccine in January.

According to the Moscow Times, the country expects 2 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine to be administered over the next three months. Hungary also approved China’s Sinopharm vaccine last month, which again goes against the grain when it comes to EU vaccine approval.

On Monday, Slovakia became the second European country to announce that it had purchased the Sputnik V vaccine, which secured 2 million doses of the shot. However, the Slovak Minister of Health said it will not be given immediately as it still needs the green light from the country’s national drug regulator.

A Slovak Army plane carrying doses of the Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus (Covid-19) stands on the tarmac when it arrives from Moscow at Kosice International Airport, Slovakia, on March 1, 2021.

PETER LAZAR | AFP | Getty Images

What’s happening?

The linchpin for the Russian vaccine is widespread frustration with the slow adoption of EU vaccines. The bloc’s decision to jointly buy vaccines has hampered it, and its orders came later than in other countries, including the UK and US

Manufacturing problems and bureaucracy – and hesitation in some countries about vaccines – were also stumbling blocks to adoption.

Nonetheless, the move by some Eastern European countries to unilaterally support Russia’s vaccine will exacerbate problems in Brussels as it undermines the EU’s desire for a unified approach and a sense of equity in the distribution of vaccines.

There were also concerns specifically about Sputnik V, although subsequent data have confirmed the vaccine’s effectiveness and credibility.

The vaccine was approved by the Russian health authority in August last year, ahead of the completion of clinical trials, causing skepticism among experts that it may not meet strict safety and efficacy standards. Some experts argued that the Kremlin is keen to win the race to develop a Covid vaccine.

However, an interim analysis of the Phase 3 clinical trials with 20 participants published in The Lancet in early February found the vaccine to be 91.6% effective against symptomatic Covid-19 infections.

In a companion article in the Lancet, Ian Jones, Professor of Virology at the University of Reading, England noted that “the development of the Sputnik V vaccine has been criticized for undue urgency. However, the result reported here is clear and scientific. The principle of vaccination is demonstrated which means another vaccine can now join the fight to reduce the incidence of Covid-19. “

However, the Gamaleya National Center for Epidemiology and Microbiology in Moscow, which developed the vaccine, has not yet submitted an application to the EMA for marketing authorization for the vaccine, the EU Medicines Agency said in early February.

A woman receives the second component of the Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V) COVID-19 vaccine.

Valentin Sprinchak | TASS | Getty Images

RDIF, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that backed the development of Sputnik V, announced to CNBC on Monday that it had requested the EU Drugs Agency for an ongoing vaccine review in mid-February. However, the EMA has not confirmed this and CNBC has asked the EMA for a comment.

Political theater

The European Commission already warned Hungary, albeit indirectly, against the use of the Russian vaccine before the EMA approved it. As early as November, a spokesman for the Commission told Reuters: “The question is whether a Member State would like to give its citizens a vaccine that has not been tested by the EMA.” Public confidence in vaccination could be damaged.

“This is where the approval process and confidence in vaccines meet. When our citizens start questioning the safety of a vaccine, it will be much more difficult to get a sufficient proportion of vaccines if it has not undergone rigorous scientific evaluation. to demonstrate its safety and effectiveness to the population, “said the spokesman, reported Reuters.

However, the decision of Hungary to proceed alone with the vaccine against Sputnik V does not surprise the EU observers. The country’s right-wing leader, Viktor Orban – a “strong man” like Russia’s Putin – has had several disputes with the EU executive in recent years, particularly over signs of the government’s increasing authoritarianism. The erosion of the independence of the judiciary and freedom of the press in Hungary is of particular concern to the EU. However, the Hungarian government rejects such criticism.

Gustav Gressel, Senior Policy Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told CNBC on Monday that Hungary’s actions were “part of Orban’s campaign to promote a” decadent, declining EU “and the future of Hungary in the east with Russia and China.” said it had been going on for some time.

Daragh McDowell, head of Europe and chief analyst for Russia at Verisk Maplecroft, described the geopolitics surrounding Sputnik V and the EU as “political theater more than anything”.

“For Hungary and Austria there is an element of foreign policy signaling here, as both Kurz and Orban generally had a closer relationship with Putin than their European counterparts. In the case of the Czech Republic, the impetus seems to have been more towards the government “Take action” in the face of a rapid surge in the number of cases in February, “he said.

There are also doubts as to whether Russia will be able to mass-produce and ship its Sputnik V vaccine to Europe.

“While the Sputnik vaccine appears to be an effective vaccine in principle, Russia is having great difficulty getting mass production right … enough Sputnik vaccine is still not being made,” Gressel said. McDowell noted that “the question is whether Sputnik V can make a noticeable difference, given regulatory issues and existing logistical issues, and whether the vaccine can be made in sufficient numbers either by Russian manufacturers or under license.”

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Business

Russia’s Sputnik vaccine will get its first approval within the EU, UAE

Russia’s Sputnik vaccine gets its first approval in the EU, UAE

A medical worker fills a syringe with the Gam-COVID-Vac vaccine (under the brand name Sputnik V) in Butovo, in southern Moscow.

Sergei Savostyanov | TASS | Getty Images

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Russian vaccine Sputnik V Covid-19 saw a number of improvements on Thursday as Hungary and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries in the European Union and the Gulf region to register the emergency shot.

Hungary’s decision was confirmed by President Viktor Orban’s spokesman, who said that if the country agrees to a shipping agreement with Moscow, it will be the first EU country to receive the vaccine. This is because the country’s cases have fallen from a high of more than 6,000 a day in early December to below 2,000 a day.

“This decision is very important as it shows that over 90% of the vaccine’s safety and efficacy is valued by our partners in Hungary,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, in a statement.

The EU drug regulator has not yet approved the Russian stab, although Chancellor Angela Merkel gave Sputnik further hope on Thursday, suggesting that the German vaccine regulator could advise Russia on steering the EU approval process. The RDIF has submitted Sputnik for EU registration and expects its review in February.

UAE approval comes amid a dramatic surge in infections

The UAE approval comes amid a record spike in cases in the little Gulf Sheikh, which excelled internationally by welcoming tourists and fully reopening its economy by late summer last year.

Confirmed coronavirus cases have more than tripled in about three weeks, prompting Emirati authorities to suspend unnecessary hospital surgery and “entertainment” activities in their busy hotels and restaurants just days after the country gave assurances that the virus was under Control was to fail.

The UAE’s daily number of cases hit a record high of 3,529 on Thursday, well above neighboring Gulf states, where registered infections are below 500 per day.

A man from the Emirates wearing a protective mask walks at al-Barsha Health Center in the Gulf of Dubai on December 24, 2020.

GIUSEPPE CACACE | AFP via Getty Images

Sputnik V will be the third vaccine to be used in the United Arab Emirates after China’s Sinopharm vaccine and the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine developed in the US and Germany were released to the public in December. The country of around 10 million people is running the second fastest national vaccination campaign in the world after Israel per capita, according to the government, and aims to vaccinate half of the country’s population by the end of March.

“The decision is part of the UAE’s comprehensive and integrated efforts to ensure a higher level of prevention,” the country’s health ministry said in a statement on Thursday about Sputnik’s approval. “The study results have demonstrated the vaccine’s effectiveness in eliciting a strong antibody response to the virus, its safety to use and its compliance with international safety and efficacy standards.”

Lack of late-stage experimental data

The approvals came despite detailed research data not yet published on the results of the phase 3 human vaccine study. The capital of the United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, began phase 3 testing for Sputnik V earlier this month but has not released any data on it. 1,000 volunteers in the emirate have received their first dose, according to RDIF.

Sputnik V, which according to its developer, the Gamaleya Research Institute, is 91% effective after two doses, has been used across Russia for months. Scientists expressed concern about what many have described as the rush to launch the vaccine, which gave the green light for mass use in Russia ahead of the completion of Phase 3 trials.

As the first step in the largest vaccination campaign in Argentina’s history, first line health workers are receiving the Russian Sputnik V vaccine against the coronavirus.

Patricio Murphy | SOPA pictures | LightRocket | Getty Images

Analysis of the phase 1 and phase 2 studies of the vaccine was published in The Lancet in September, which found that the initial results did not show any significant negative side effects, but further studies were required.

“The results of the Phase III clinical trials are expected to be published shortly,” according to the official Sputnik V.

Prior to Thursday’s announcements, it had been approved for emergencies in nine countries and territories outside Russia – Algeria, Argentina, Bolivia, Belarus, Serbia, Venezuela, Paraguay, Turkmenistan and the Palestinian Territories.

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Health

Merkel open to producing Russia’s Sputnik within the EU

Merkel open to producing Russia's Sputnik in the EU

Test studies of the Covid-19 vaccine candidate Sputnik V are being carried out in Russia.

Sefa Karacan | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

According to a spokeswoman for her office, Chancellor Angela Merkel is “open” to the idea of ​​producing Russia’s coronavirus vaccine in the European Union.

Germany has so far carried out the highest number of vaccinations among the 27 European nations since the rollout began at the end of December. However, there are large discrepancies within the bloc, where, for example, the Netherlands only started vaccination on Wednesday.

The EU has been criticized for slow adoption of Covid-19 vaccines compared to other parts of the world, with the US, China and Israel leading the way in the number of doses given.

Merkel spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday about the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. During the phone conversation, she said she was “open to the idea of ​​bilateral cooperation to develop European production capacities (for the Russian vaccine),” said Ulrike Demmer, deputy spokeswoman for the German government, on Wednesday, according to Politico.

A Brussels-based federal government spokesman confirmed the same statement to CNBC.

Germany has made it clear that this would only happen if the European Medicines Agency (EMA) approved the Sputnik V vaccine.

European regulators approved the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine last month and the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday. However, the EMA has not yet received a formal application to evaluate the Russian Covid vaccine for EU-wide administration.

Russian Gamaleya Institute, the developers of the Sputnik-V vaccine, said Tuesday that more than 1 million people received the sting, the Financial Times reported.

Vaccines for everyone

Earlier this week, Germany announced a further tightening of social restrictions, with schools closing until January 31.

Federal Minister of Health Jens Spahn said on Thursday that there would be a vaccine for “everyone” this year. “In 2021, 50 million vaccine doses from Moderna and 90 million from BioNTech will be secured. That alone is enough to offer a vaccination to practically everyone,” Spahn told the German television station ZDF.

Germany has around 83 million inhabitants.

On Wednesday, Spahn spoke to reporters that “if all goes well” a new Pfizer BioNTech factory will be built in February to increase the number of vaccines available in Europe. BioNTech is a biotechnology company based in Mainz, a city on the Rhine in western central Germany.

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AstraZeneca to work on vaccine with Russia’s Gamaleya

AstraZeneca to work on vaccine with Russia's Gamaleya

A laboratory technician oversees the filling and packaging tests for the large-scale manufacture and delivery of the Oxford University’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate AZD1222, which was conducted on a high-capacity aseptic vial filling line in Catalent, Anagni, Italy on September 11, 2020.

Vincenzo Pinto | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON – British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Friday it would soon be working with Russia’s Gamaleya Institute to investigate whether the two coronavirus vaccine candidates could be successfully combined.

After the developers of the Sputnik V Covid-19 vaccine reached out to AstraZeneca on Twitter late last month, they asked if they should try combining the two cold virus-based vaccines to increase effectiveness.

“The ability to combine different COVID-19 vaccines can be helpful to improve protection and / or accessibility of vaccines. Therefore, it is important to study different vaccine combinations to make vaccination programs more flexible and to allow doctors more choice at the time of vaccine administration, “AstraZeneca said in a statement Friday.

“It is also likely that combining vaccines over a longer period of time will result in improved immunity,” he added.

AstraZeneca’s Covid-19 vaccine, made in partnership with Oxford University, is one of several looking to seek drug regulatory approval as hopes of a mass vaccination campaign to end the pandemic grow.

To date, more than 69 million people worldwide have contracted the coronavirus, with 1.58 million deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Data published this week in The Lancet Medical Journal showed AstraZeneca’s vaccine had an average efficacy of 70.4%, based on the summary of interim data from late-stage clinical trials. The vaccine was also found to be safe and effective.

Russia has claimed Sputnik V is over 90% effective in preventing people from contracting the virus, citing preliminary results from ongoing studies.

“New level of cooperation”

The Russian direct investment fund, Russia’s sovereign wealth fund that financed the development of Sputnik V, said clinical trials of AstraZeneca’s vaccine, combined with its own, would begin by the end of the month.

“AstraZeneca’s decision to conduct clinical trials with one of two Sputnik V vectors to increase the effectiveness of its own vaccine is an important step in uniting efforts to combat the pandemic,” said Kirill Dmitriev, CEO of Russian direct investment fund said in a statement.

“We welcome the start of this new phase of collaboration between vaccine manufacturers. We are determined to expand this partnership in the future and begin joint production after the new vaccine has proven its effectiveness in clinical trials,” said Dmitriev.

The Editor in Chief of The Lancet, Dr. Richard Horton told CNBC on Wednesday that AstraZeneca’s vaccine had “a marked comparative advantage” over other leading candidates. He also claimed it was the one who could immunize the world “more effectively” and “faster” than their counterparts.

AstraZeneca’s vaccine is a viral vector vaccine based on a weakened version of the common cold virus that causes infections in chimpanzees. It is designed to prepare the immune system to attack the coronavirus known as SARS-CoV-2 when it later infects the body.