Germany expects its COVID-19 vaccine in early 2021

The head of Germany’s vaccine regulator said certain groups of people living in Germany could be vaccinated against the corona virus early next year.

Klaus Cichutek, head of the Paul Ehrlich Institute, told a newspaper in the country that results from Phase I and Phase II research showed that certain vaccines caused an immune response against corona virus.

“If data from Phase III trials shows the vaccines are effective and safe, the first vaccines could be approved at the beginning of the year, possibly with conditions attached,” he said.

Infections in Germany have risen in recent weeks and the most recent data on infectious diseases from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) showed the number of reported cases of corona virus climbing by 1,510 to 226,914.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there are currently more than 25 potential vaccine candidates in clinical trials around the world.

A number of smaller biotech and research laboratories are partnering with large drug developers to fund the processes and be able to increase production capacity to billions of doses if their vaccines turn out to be effective in the trials.

Russia announced on August 11 that it had approved the “world’s first” COVID-19 vaccine and will roll out the vaccine by the end of this month.

Very recently, a Chinese newspaper revealed that the country’s first COVID-19 vaccine has secured a patent.

German biotechnology firm CureVac has not ruled out a timely approval process for its prospective vaccine and expects to get it on the market by mid-2021.