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THE BOSTON GLOBE THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 | BOSTONGLOBE.COM/BUSINESS Glitches hamper rollout of Moderna’s

Cambridge biotech says problems related Two days later, health officials in News. the future.” Maine and Michigan said more than McKesson, which has a government Ray Jordan, a Moderna spokesman, to distribution issues beyond its control 16,000 doses spoiled because of tem- contract to deliver the Moderna vac- said the company couldn’t comment on perature control problems during deliv- cine, confirmed in a statement Wednes- most of the problems because they were By Jonathan Saltzman ing the first 100 days of his administra- ery and would probably have to be dis- day that “certain deliveries” that went distribution matters that involved the GLOBE STAFF tion. posed of. out Sunday arrived colder than minus- federal program Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine may That won’t be easy, if recent events And on Wednesday, New York May- 13 degrees Fahrenheit, the lower end of and McKesson. The government has so be a triumph of , but its are any indication. On Sunday, Califor- or Bill de Blasio said the city was re- the recommended temperature range. far ordered 200 million doses of Moder- rollout has hit snags lately, from Cali- nia’s state epidemiologist recommend- scheduling 23,000 vaccine appoint- The company blamed the problem on na’s vaccine. fornia to Maine. ed that the state pause the distribution ments because of a supply shortage. He gel packs that were found to be too cold. “Our contract has us delivering They illustrate the challenges facing of more than 330,000 doses of the Cam- said Moderna and Texas-based distribu- McKesson is replacing those doses batches to the US government, and President Biden, who promised before bridge company’s vaccine after a “high- tor McKesson Corporation had told city as well as others slated for shipment then they do the final delivery, working his inauguration Wednesday that the er than usual” number of people officials that 103,000 doses expected to that were held up because of the same with McKesson as their primary strate- government will administer 100 mil- showed signs of a possible severe aller- arrive Tuesday will be delayed for a cou- problem. The firm said it has “taken gic distributor,” said Jordan. Moderna lion doses of coronavirus vaccine dur- gic reaction. ple of days, according to Bloomberg steps to prevent this from occurring in MODERNA, Page D4 Study: vaccine seems to be effective on variant

By Andrew Joseph STAT The COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer- BioNTech appears to work just as well against a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus first identified in the Unit- STAT ed Kingdom as it does against earlier forms of the pathogen, the companies reported in a study Wednesday. The paper from company scientists, which has not yet been peer-reviewed, is a welcome signal that existing vac- cines don’t seem to be weakened by the variant in question, dubbed B.1.1.7. Al- ready, scientists had tested the Pfizer vaccine against one of the key muta- tions in the variant and found the im- munization’s neutralization power was not affected. Scientists are also testing against other variants of concern, which contain different mutations that in lab experiments have shown they can, to some extent, help the virus evade exist- ing antibodies that recognize and target the virus. These mutations appear in

‘The efficacy of the vaccine is so good and so high that we have a GLOBE STAFF PHOTO ILLUSTRATION, ADOBE STOCK little bit of a cushion.’ ROCHELLE WALENSKY, Recorded Future Biden administration director of CDC

variants first seen in South Africa and Brazil, which also look to be more trans- tracks present dangers missible than earlier iterations of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The variants in South Africa and Brazil have raised con- The Scott Kirsner Christopher Ahlberg. related to the violent attacks at the US cerns that they can more easily re-infect Think of Recorded Future as a mash- Capitol, this week’s inauguration, and people who have already recovered Somerville INNOVATION ECONOMY up of and Jack Ryan — a search what might come next — though he de- from COVID-19 and have antibodies company’s engine focused on nasty stuff transpir- clines to supply specifics. against the virus, though more studies ing or being planned around the world. A big chunk of Recorded Future’s — including whether there’s some im- search Whether a criminal gang or a hostile business is providing information about pact on how well vaccines work — are government is plotting a cyberattack, or cyberattacks targeting government ongoing. engine looks terrorist groups or military contractors agencies or companies — including In the new study, researchers engi- for potential are moving around somewhere, Record- troves of stolen data that may be for sale neered what are called pseudoviruses ed Future aims to “index all this stuff in underground marketplaces. That has (these are more practical to work with cyberattacks and make it analyzable,” Ahlberg says. been a busy landscape recently, with the in lab experiments than actual live spec- and terrorist By “all this stuff,” he means discus- hack of network management software imens of dangerous viruses such as sions happening and stolen data being from the Texas company SolarWinds SARS-2) to have the full suite of muta- activity. It’s posted in public Web forums and on the that may have purloined sensitive data tions as B.1.1.7. They then tested blood “dark Web,” hidden Internet servers from a range of federal agencies and taken from 16 people who had received no surprise eopolitical chaos, cyberat- that, by design, are difficult to access. major tech companies. (US intelligence the vaccine against the variant, and that tacks, and domestic terror- With more than 500 employees “who agencies have pinned it on the Rus- found it could neutralize the variant as ism make for anxiety-pro- do nothing but intelligence,” as Ahlberg sians.) Ahlberg refers to it as a “supply well as it could an earlier form of the vi- business is ducing headlines these puts it, the company, founded in 2009, chain hack,” in which the bad guys seek rus. “These data … make it unlikely that good. days. But they’re fueling generated nearly $150 million in reve- access to a system or piece of software the B.1.1.7 lineage will escape” protec- G the growth of a Somerville nue last year. Last February, it inked a used by a supplier to the company or tion from the vaccine, the researchers company with a name that $50 million contract with the US Cyber agency they’re trying to hack. PFIZER, Page D4 sounds like something from fic- Command to provide an array of federal The SolarWinds hack “was likely tion: Recorded Future. agencies access to the company’s soft- happening throughout 2020, even The privately held company grew 50 ware platform. though it came out toward the end,” percent in 2020 and chalked up record Ahlberg says the company has “ac- says Roman Sannikov, director of cyber- INSIDE revenues, according to chief executive tively worked on analysis” for its clients INNOVATION ECONOMY, Page D2

Key site sold near Assembly Row BioMed Realty plans 1.3m the real estate firm paid $163 million for the site. The deal, announced Tuesday, was first dis- square feet of labs, offices closed last summer, when BioMed sought ap- provals from Somerville to change plans for the By Tim Logan site — then known as XMBLY — from a mixed- GLOBE STAFF use project that included apartments into some- ENERGY Developers with a focus on building lab space thing suited for life-sciences companies. It closed Work on Keystone XL keep scooping up sites all over Greater Boston, on the property just before Christmas, and with the latest deal being for nine acres near As- BioMed is now preparing a proposal for the first pipeline halted D3 sembly Row. phase of the project. The company aims to start BioMed Realty says it plans to build a 1.3 mil- construction later this year. HEALTH CARE BioMed, a Kendall Square life-sciences developer, is lion-square-foot lab-and-office campus where a “Our vision for the Assembly Square location Haemonetics acquires Calif. one of several that have been on buying sprees. Above mid-size office building and parking lots now is to create a premier innovation campus where is a rendering of what it plans in Somerville. stand. Deeds filed in Middlesex County indicate ASSEMBLY, Page D4 medical-device firm D2 D2 Business THURSDAY, JANUARY 21, 2021 TALKING POINTS

HEALTH CARE Mass General Brigham said on Wednesday that Dr. Sunil “Sunny” Eappen will serve as interim president of its Brigham and Women’s Hospital after the Eappen tapped departure of its current president, Dr. Elizabeth Nabel, on March 1. Eappen, as Brigham 54, has been the Boston hospital’s senior vice president of medical affairs and Hunt for online and Women’s chief medical officer since July 2018. Nabel, Brigham and Women’s president since 2010, is leaving to pursue opportunities in the biotech sector. Mass interim chief General Brigham, the state’s largest health system, said a search for Nabel’s permanent successor will take several months. — LARRY EDELMAN threats is keeping

ADVERTISING The Boston ad agency Hill Holliday has recruited Icaro Doria away from rival Havas to be Mass. firm busy its new chief creative officer. Doria will join IPG-owned Hill Holliday Feb. 1, filling a posi- Hill Holiday tion that had been held for a decade by Lance Jensen. At Havas, Doria has been global uINNOVATION ECONOMY has a new chief chief creative officer at Havas Health & You, and he was previously chief creative officer at Continued from Page D1 creative officer the company’s Arnold Worldwide group. The native of Brazil has worked with a wide crime and underground range of well-known brands in his 25-year career, including Coca-Cola, Nike, and Diageo. intelligence at Recorded In a note to clients, Hill Holliday chief executive Karen Kaplan called Doria “one of the Future. “People are posting [data] they purport to be from most talented, optimistic and creative leaders in the business.” — JON CHESTO SolarWinds, and we are trying to ascertain that this is legitimate,” or whether it is fake COMMERCIAL BANKING JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s commercial banking arm has hired Skip Kelly to be managing information being posted to director for its venture capital work, with a particular focus on strengthening the bank’s “mask involvement by nation- states,” Sannikov continues. Chase hires new relationships with firms that invest in biotechs and other life-sciences businesses. Kelly, But beyond compromised who is based in Boston, is the latest former Silicon Valley Bank executive to join director for networks and credit card theft, venture capital JPMorgan. In late 2019, the bank announced it was hiring several SVB executives as part Recorded Future is increasingly of its push to do more with the venture capital and innovation economy. The Boston- finding that its customers want based executives that were part of that hiring effort included Pamela Aldsworth and Dave to know about what is being Reich. — JON CHESTO said in online forums that attract neo-Nazis, other CEO Christopher Ahlberg extremist groups, and says his firm has worked on conspiracy theorists. As an analyses for clients related FINANCE Morgan Stanley traders cashed in example, Ahlberg says that to the attack on the Capitol. during the waning months of 2020 to telecommunications companies Morgan Stanley round off the bank’s best year on that use Recorded Future are lot of anger.” has its best year record. The division beat analysts’ interested in tracking online He says the company is also discussions that falsely link the noticing that foreign estimates as fourth-quarter equities on record emergence of the COVID-19 adversaries are doing what they revenue surged to cement the bank’s virus with 5G wireless can to amplify the discord. And standing as the top stock-trading communications. In Britain, they are seeing conspiracy shop. It joined its closest peers, the conspiracy theory led theory-oriented groups like JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs, people to set fire to dozens of QAnon expanding digital in consolidating their standing on the top perch of Wall Street with the pandemic helping wireless towers last year. footprints across . secure their lead over smaller rivals. — BLOOMBERG NEWS Over the past year or two, “Unfortunately, this is not Ahlberg says, Recorded Future’s something that’s going to go customers, largely those in law away anytime soon,” he says. enforcement and at intelligence Bad news for society, but TOURISM Airlines and hotel operators can write off the Easter travel season, even as COVID-19 agencies, are increasingly good news for Recorded vaccination rollouts pick up speed in many parts of the world, according to the largest concerned about “threats that Future’s continued growth. Hopes for abusy provider of flight-booking software. “We don’t see a recovery at Easter, with similar levels can lead to violence and Ahlberg says the company is disruption. So yes, we’re going closing in on 1,000 clients; it to what we saw in 2020 — or 20 percent to 25 percent of what the industry had in 2019,” Easter travel to be doubling down on that.” has chosen not to sell its Decius Valmorbida, president of the travel unit at Amadeus IT Group, said in an period are Where Recorded Future gets product to US adversaries such interview. Demand “will not be strong, and the recovery will be more toward summer,” he cagey is about how its product as China, Russia, and dashed said. Yet European carriers are becoming fearful that a recovery will arrive too late even works. It does a lot of gathering Venezuela — and embargoed for summer, as highly infectious new viral strains prompt people to once again shelve (or “scraping”) of content from countries already included their travel plans. — BLOOMBERG NEWS around the open Web, using North Korea, Cuba, and Iran. software and humans to John Robb, an Acton analyze it. But it also security analyst who has sometimes creates fictional consulted to the chairman of AUTOMOTIVE Mercedes-Benz is taking on one of the most complex industry personas to infiltrate closed the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says challenges with the rollout of its battery-powered EQA: selling groups and forums. That can there are lots of home-brewed Mercedes to small electric cars without a big profit squeeze. The brand’s get dicey, Sannikov explains, tools for analyzing online offer a small first fully electric compact model will hit European showrooms because “sometimes you have information about terrorism, to make it seem you’re involved extremism, and other threats — this spring, flanking the mid-size EQC sport-utility vehicle and electric car in criminal activity — like and lots of “heavy lifting” that the EQV van, the Daimler AG unit said Wednesday. Prices in buying or selling” stolen is done by law enforcement this spring Germany start at $57,734 and the vehicle offers 302 miles of information. officials, contractors, and range. — BLOOMBERG NEWS (Last year, the Department volunteer groups to infiltrate of Justice published some these online groups and helpful guidelines on this kind discover what they’re of cloak-and-dagger activity: discussing. But those AUTOMOTIVE US safety regulators are investigating complaints that a Ford pickup truck tailgate recall “Legal Considerations When conversations, Robb observes, didn’t fix the problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says it has 11 Gathering Online Cyber Threat sometimes lacks “actionable regulators complaints that a recall of power tailgates on 300,000 Super Duty pickups failed to rectify Intelligence and Purchasing info” about the groups’ check ongoing the issue. The agency says it also has received reports from Ford about unintended tail- Data from Illicit Sources.”) preparations or capabilities to problems with gate openings after the recall repairs were made. Ford recalled the F-250, F-350 and But when it comes to execute an attack. F-450 trucks in 2019 because the power tailgates could open while being driven. The de- gaining entry to groups Robb says he’s “not sure organized around political there is a dominant commercial Ford tailgates fect allowed for the potential of unrestrained cargo tumbling from vehicles. The trucks activity, Sannikov says it can be player in the space” that are from the 2017 through 2020 model years. — ASSOCIATED PRESS easier, because “they’re trying Recorded Future operates in. to bring in as many people as That creates an opportunity for possible” and “foment as much the company. It was acquired in INSURANCE UnitedHealth’s fourth-quarter earnings tumbled as anger and chaos and violence 2019 by Insight Partners, a on as grand a scale as possible, private equity firm, for $780 costs from COVID-19 hit the health insurance so you can’t create something million. Ahlberg predicts that UnitedHealth’s provider, but results still easily beat expectations. that’s too locked-down.” an of earnings decline Health care use rebounded in the final quarter of Sannikov says that Recorded stock could happen “within the due to COVID-19 2020 after the global pandemic kept people away Future is seeing from its own next two years.” from doctors’ offices and surgery centers when it first data sources that “some of spread earlier last year. UnitedHealth also said these groups are organizing Scott Kirsner can be reached at Wednesday that its insurance business spent more in further demonstrations and [email protected]. Follow protests. There’s certainly still a him on Twitter @ScottKirsner. the quarter covering claims for COVID-19 testing and treatment. They accounted for 11 percent of all care activity, not counting prescriptions. That was up from 6 percent in the third quarter. Medical costs, by far the company’s largest expense, jumped 7 percent to more than $42 billion in the fourth quarter. — ASSOCIATED PRESS Haemonetics acquires Calif. medical device firm FINANCE Asset managers hoping 2021 might bring some respite to the fee war are in for disappointment, if Vanguard Group’s latest exchange-traded fund is anything to go by. By Anissa Gardizy va’s vascular closure technology Vanguard The $7.1 trillion investment giant this week filed plans for the Vanguard Ultra-Short GLOBE CORRESPONDENT to our portfolio and look for- ramps up Bond ETF, which will track high-quality fixed-income securities and is expected to begin The health care company ward to welcoming their talent- fee war trading next quarter. The average cost of similar funds is about 0.22 percent, but Haemonetics Corp. said ed team, said Chris Simon, chief Vanguard — whose low-cost approach helped it dominate ETF flows last year — is Wednesday that it has agreed to executive of Haemonetics. He acquire a California medical de- added that the deal “immediate- in ETFs charging less than half that for the new actively managed offering. Its 0.10 percent vice company for $475 million in ly expands and diversifies [Hae- expense ratio compares with 0.18 percent for the $15.9 billion JPMorgan Ultra-Short cash upfront. monetics’] hospital offerings.” Income ETF and 0.35 percent on the $14.4 billion PIMCO Enhanced Short Maturity Boston-based Haemonetics, To finance the acquisition, Active Exchange-Traded Fund (MINT). — BLOOMBERG NEWS which focuses on equipment, the company said it will use a software, and services around combination of cash, credit, and blood management, will acquire a $150 million term loan. Hae- Cardiva Medical, a privately held monetics used to be headquar- HOME PRODUCTS Procter & Gamble boosted its sales and profit outlook on firm in Silicon Valley that makes tered along Interstate 93 in expectations that surging at-home demand for its toilet devices to seal arteries and Braintree, but in 2019 it made a P&G’s sales, paper and laundry detergent will continue, even as the veins. move to a 62,000-square-foot profit tied to rapid pace of growth took a slight dip in the latest quarter. The merger, expected to close space on Summer Street in Bos- continued The maker of Charmin, Tide, and other household staples in the first quarter of the year, ton. Haemonetics employs now expects organic revenue to grow as much as 6 percent could add about $65 million to about 225 workers in Massachu- $75 million in revenue for Hae- setts and about 3,000 globally. demand for in fiscal 2021, an increase from the previous outlook of no monetics in the first fiscal year. more than 5 percent. P&G also sees core earnings per toiletpaper, Thedealisvaluedatupto Anissa Gardizy can be reached detergent share rising as much as 10 percent, according to a $510 million, based on sales at [email protected]. statement Wednesday, up from a range of 5 percent to 8 growth considerations. Follow her on Twitter percent. — BLOOMBERG NEWS “We are excited to add Cardi- @anissagardizy8.