The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said Tuesday that a new coronavirus vaccine could be tested as early as next week — with the potential for emergency use by fall, a report said Tuesday.
“This is a crisis right now, and a solution is desperately needed by all,” Pfizer Chief Executive Albert Bourla told the Wall Street Journal.
Pfizer is working with German-based BioNtech to deliver the possible vaccine. Clinical trials on human volunteers in Germany have already started.
Health regulators in the US may approve testing the vaccine on humans by next week, Bourla told the paper.
If that timeline holds true, study results could be delivered within a month. Then, with favorable testing outcomes, the vaccine may be ready to distribute in emergency cases by the fall, Bourla said.
The New York-based corporation has invested $650 million into developing and possibly manufacturing the vaccine.
“You can imagine the demand for something like that will be extremely, extremely high,” Bourla told the Journal.
But the odds of developing a successful vaccine are slim, with just 6 percent of them becoming market-ready after a series of strict tests, the report said, citing a 2013 study published by PLOS ONE.
