DISINFO: AstraZeneca fails to create a vaccine without Russia
SUMMARY
AstraZeneca, realising that they, the British, do not succeed with their vaccine, took a reasonable step and said: let’s be together. And now they are working with the Russian Direct Investment Fund to really be able to fight the coronavirus.
RESPONSE
A narrative, overstating the cooperation between the Gamaleya Research Institute and British AstraZeneca.
AstraZeneca's Russian subsidiary announced that it plans to begin a clinical trial programme to assess the safety and immunogenicity of a combination of COVID-19 vaccines (AZD1222, developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University and Sputnik V, developed by Russian Gamaleya Research institute).
On November 23 2020, AstraZeneca's global site announced that its AZD1222 vaccine met primary efficacy endpoint in preventing COVID-19. Therefore, the statement on a planned clinical trial combining Sputnik V and AstraZeneca is amplified by pro-Kremlin media to state that "the British do not succeed with development of a vaccine" which is untrue.
Read here an extensive report by BBC about the development of AstraZeneca.
This is part of a disinformation campaign aiming to promote the Russian Sputnik V vaccine and discredit Western vaccines. See more disinformation cases from the campaign against Pfizer and AtraZeneca, promoting Sputnik V, such as British propaganda tries to dilute the failure of the AstraZeneca vaccine against Sputnik V or Pfizer used to fake clinical trials.