Another vaccine has entered the race to rid the world of the Covid-19 pandemic, but unlike the US version, when the team behind the British-produced AstraZeneca product announced its successful preliminary trial results, the company’s shares plummeted in trading on Monday.

By contrast, US pharma giant Pfizer’s earlier announcement, on November 9, saw stock markets around the world (including in Russia) rallying and analysts immediately upgraded their 2021 outlooks with a “back-to-work” optimistic scenario that sees the crisis ending in the second half of next year.

Russia’s pioneering ‘Sputnik V’ vaccine is based on a time-tested human adenovirus platform, which its creators say ensures the medicine’s safety and efficiency. The platform (along with a smaller price) may become a good selling point. A recent YouGov poll in countries like Mexico, the UAE, and Indonesia showed that the respondents who had preferences would reportedly rather choose the human virus vector than the chimpanzee variant.