A vaccine for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic could be approved in roughly a year, according to the European Medicines Agency (EMA).
The Amsterdam-based agency was communicating with 33 developers to do all it could to approve the new vaccine but was sceptical of claims it would be ready by September this year, Marco Cavaleri, EMA vaccines head said in a statement on Thursday as reported by Reuters.
“For vaccines, since the development has to start from scratch ... we might look from an optimistic side in a year from now, so beginning of 2021,” he told journalists in a statement.
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Skipping third phases of vaccine trials should be ruled out to ensure vaccines were safe and effective, he said.
The news comes as the EMA researches 115 treatment options for coronavirus patients, Reuters reported.
Some may be approved in Europe as early as the summer, Cavaleri said without providing further details.
Countries Race for a Cure for COVID-19
Comments from the EMA echo German education and research minister, Anja Karliczek, said a COVID-19 vaccine may not be available until 2021, urging officials to "remain realistic and be prepared for possible failures".
Meanwhile, Chinese authorities have begun clinical trials of two vaccines developed by the Wuhan Institute of Biological Products along with the Chinese National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) and Sinovac Research and Development Company.
Pfizer Inc and BioNTech have also launched human clinical trials in the US with four vaccine candidates. Phase 1 and 2 trials on the joint BNT162 vaccine programme took place a week earlier in Germany in late April.
If approved, both companies would scale up production globally later in 2020, the companies said.
Roughly eight candidate vaccines are under clinical evaluation and 102 in preclinical evaluation, according to a draft landscape document from the WHO.
US Accusations Against China and WHO Joint Statement on Global Collaboration
The news comes after a New York Times report on Monday said the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) accused China of stealing US coronavirus vaccine research.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian slammed the NYT report, stating that China already leads in global research and development on coronavirus vaccines and therapies, stating that hacking claims from Washington were "immoral" attempts to "smear" Beijing.
The news comes after Washington accused the WHO and Beijing of mishandling and covering up the ongoing pandemic, which the latter two have sharply and repeatedly denied.
The pledge read: "While a vaccine for general use takes time to develop, a vaccine may ultimately be instrumental in controlling this worldwide pandemic. In the interim, we applaud the implementation of community intervention measures that reduce spread of the virus and protect people, including vulnerable populations, and pledge to use the time gained by the widespread adoption of such measures to develop a vaccine as rapidly as possible."
