OREANDA-NEWS. Hackers from North Korea tried to make a cyber attack on the American concern «Pfizer», which developed a vaccine against COVID-19 together with the German company «BioNTech».

This was reported on Tuesday, February 16, by the South Korean news agency «Yonhap», citing information from the national intelligence service. Hackers tried to get information about the technology of production of the vaccine, the report says.

South Korea government has reached an agreement to buy additional doses of coronavirus vaccines sufficient to vaccinate 23 million people, Prime Minister Chung Se-kyung said. For vaccination of 20 million people, the drug of the American company «Novavax» is purchased, for 3 million — the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine.

The Australian authorities also said, that they chose the BioNTech/Pfizer drug to protect local residents from the coronavirus. Health Minister Greg Hunt said Australia had received 142,000 doses of the vaccine, with the vaccination campaign starting next week.

Israeli scientists called this drug «extremely effective». According to the local medical organization «Clalit», the BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine reduced the number of coronavirus infections among those who took it by 92%. In addition, the high effectiveness of the drug has been confirmed by numerous clinical trials.