Coronavirus vaccine ‘within months’

01 April 2020 by News Desk   |   SHARE  

Coronavirus vaccine tests are due to start soon. Human testing of a coronavirus vaccine could start by September.

Drug maker Johnson & Johnson says it aims to make a vaccine ready for use in early 2021.

Global efforts are underway to develop a vaccine for the virus that has killed almost 35,000 worldwide, but it could take a year to have a vaccine ready.

A patient was dosed with Moderna Inc’s vaccine in an early-stage trial earlier this month, making it the front-runner in the race to develop a viable vaccine.

Coronavirus vaccine

J&J said in January it had begun working on a possible vaccine for the coronavirus, using the same technologies used to make its experimental Ebola vaccine.

The drug maker has also committed more than $1 billion of investment along with US agency Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority to co-fund vaccine research.

Earlier this month, a US government official said a trial to test a coronavirus vaccine was set to begin this month.

The reported goal is purely to check that the vaccines show no worrisome side effects, setting the stage for larger tests. But public health officials have said it will take a year to 18 months to fully validate any potential vaccine.

Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as Covid-19 cases continue to grow.

Some researchers are aiming for temporary vaccines that may guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed.