The European Union health agency has announced that the vaccine against Covid-19 will be ready within a year in "best scenarios".
The European Commission indicated that a vaccine could get approval within about a year, according to an "optimistic" scenario.
Marco Cavallieri, head of the agency's vaccine department, expressed skepticism about previous allegations that the vaccine might be ready by September and told reporters, "As for vaccines, their development must start from scratch ... we can, from an optimistic view, expect a year from now."
He added, "Our current thinking is that all vaccines under development must be subject to major trials from the third stage to determine the level of protection." "Things may evolve as the epidemic develops, and we'll see if we need to do something else," he said.
There are currently about ten "candidate" vaccines being tested in advanced stages in China, Britain, Germany and the United States.
Some experts have suggested dropping the requirement for advanced large-scale clinical trials entirely, Cavalieri said: This is not currently being considered.