Barely one week after Germany approved human trial of a possible COVID-19 vaccine, American biopharmaceutical company, Pfizer, has said its COVID-19 vaccine could be ready for emergency use by September.
The pharmaceutical giant, on Tuesday, said it would begin testing of the experimental vaccine in the United States next week.
The German vaccine, named BNT162, was developed by Biontech, a Mainz-based company. The company had said the vaccine would be tested in the US, after the human trials in Germany.
An Indian doctor resident in Abuja, Dr. Arun Balaganga, had said the new coronavirus was moving faster than researchers and drugmakers expected, with Pfizer Inc. joining several other groups saying that they had accelerated the timetable for testing and a vaccine could be ready for emergency use in the fall.
“Pfizer said it would begin testing of its experimental vaccine in the US as early as next week. On Monday, Oxford University researchers said their vaccine candidate could be available for emergency use as early as September.
“Right now, there are no vaccine trials in India, to the best of my knowledge, but there are lists of 12 to 15 companies working on different combinations,” he said.
The United Kingdom had also announced that there would be clinical trials of a potential COVID-19 vaccine.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said there were about 20 different potential COVID-19 vaccines currently in development. Some of the companies working on a vaccine said they were accelerating the timeline for testing as experts predict that the COVID-19 pandemic may last till 2021.
