The leading university has sparked hope a coronavirus vaccine will be ready in just weeks as an expert said one could be deployed before Christmas. When discussing the chances of presenting trial results this year, Oxford Vaccine Trial Chief Investigator Andrew Pollard said: “I’m optimistic that we could reach that point before the end of this year.”
He said the researchers should know whether the experimental vaccine has worked by the end of the year.
Then regulators will have to carefully review the data, before Boris Johnson decides who should have access to the vaccine.
Mr Pollard, who is director of the Oxford Vaccine Group, said: “Our bit – we are getting closer to but we are not there yet.”
Asked if he expected the vaccine would start to be deployed before Christmas, he said: “There is a small chance of that being possible but I just don’t know.”
He added: “Our trials are only one of many that are going on around the world, a number of which may well report before the end of the year, and so those steps will need to be happening for multiple different products.”
Oxford’s coronavirus vaccine trail with AstraZeneca is expected to be one of the first from big pharma to be submitted for regulatory approval.
More to follow…
