MOSCOW — Russia has made no secret of its intention to win the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine, claiming to have a viable and effective vaccine ready to launch into production in the coming weeks. “Russia traditionally has been very strong in vaccines,” said Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund, which is financing the vaccine trials, in an interview with NBC News. Russia is moving forward before completing similar trials, a move Dmitriev says is made possible by the fact that Russia’s vaccine — despite being similar to Oxford’s — is based on vaccine technologies already tested in Russia. But where Oxford uses a monkey adenovirus, Russia’s vaccine uses a human adenovirus. “They are accelerating the vaccine approval process, but it seems to me that the situation requires this,” says Tom Adshead, director of research at Macro-Advisory, a Moscow-based consulting firm.

Source: Fox News March 01, 2024 05:33 UTC