‘Readying coronavirus vaccine will take months’

No manufacturer will have a coronavirus vaccine ready for use before the middle of 2020, despite an intensive global effort, a biotech executive told AFP on Friday.

Stephane Bancel is chief executive of Moderna Therapeutics, one of several entities involved in an all-out international effort to create a vaccine as soon as possible for the deadly SARS-like virus, also known as nCoV-2019 that has already killed more than 259 people.

Moderna is working in coordination with the US National Institutes of Health, while Inovio Pharmaceuticals and the University of Queensland in Australia are pursuing alternative tracks.

Bancel said: “once we have managed to master the technology that works on humans, things could go very quickly because it is always the same manufacturing process... for messenger RNA against the flu or against the coronavirus, it is the same method of manufacturing, the only difference is the order of letters that code the proteins.

“Our teams near Boston are making a vaccine now, and as soon as it is ready, it will be sent to the NIH which will carry out clinical phase 1 trials” Bancel said in reference to initial safety tests on humans.

Asked if a vaccine could be developed in time to respond to the epidemic, he cautioned that “the vaccine will have to undergo several clinical trials.

“The challenge is that it could quickly be given to millions of people. The responsibility for its safety is therefore very important. Even going quickly with technolgy like mRNA, no manufacturer will be able to have a vaccine ready by the summer, or even by the autumn.”