COVID-19 vaccine could be available by October; Global Pharma Giant Pfizer

• Pfizer CEO has reportedly claimed that a COVID-19 vaccine could be available by the end of October 2020.
• Over 100 vaccines are under development to tackle the pandemic, while only about 10 have entered the final stage of trials as of now.

According to a story in the Times Of Israel, Albert Bourla, Head of American Pharmaceutical Corporation, Pfizer has claimed that this team could have an effective COVID-19 vaccine ready to administer by October this year.

“If things go well, and the stars are aligned, we will have enough evidence of safety and efficacy so that we can… have a vaccine around the end of October.”
Albert Bourla, Chairman and CEO – Pfizer

More than a hundred vaccines for COVID-19 are currently under development, but only 10 of them are undertrials. Pfizer is carrying out clinical trials for many potential vaccines with German firm Biotech in Europe and the United States.

“The hope of many people is that we will have a vaccine, hopefully several, by the end of this year,” Pascal Soriot, head of AstraZeneca, told a virtual meeting conducted by The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA). AstraZeneca is collaborating with Oxford University to create and develop the vaccine which is being tested by their team now. The vaccine is in the high-level human trial stage.

While it could take several years to obtain necessary permissions for the usage of vaccines, the current desperate situation created by COVID-19 could help expedite processes to support as emergency use once the vaccine is proven safe in trials.

Other difficulties mentioned at the briefing covered the high transmission rate of the virus. The coronavirus has affected more than 5.8 million people around the world as of now and has let more than 3,60,000 deaths. The rate at which the virus is spreading continues to scale exponentially each day.