A senior administration official with President DonaldTrump has revealed that health officials and drug manufacturers in the United States expect production of a COVID-19 vaccine to begin in late summer.
What happened
The official said at a press conference on Monday that manufacturing of some of the likely coronavirus vaccines was underway, even though their efficacy has not yet been verified, CNBC reported.
Revealing the production schedule, the official said: “Exactly when will the vaccine materials be in production and manufacturing? They will probably be missing in four to six weeks.
Development is accelerating and investments have been made in multiple candidate vaccines at various levels of research.
Among the candidates chosen by the Trump Administration, those of Modern Inc (NASDAQ: MRNA) and Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) will undergo late-stage human testing in late July.
Because it is important
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus working group, has questioned the long-term immunity potential of COVID-19 vaccines, CNBC reported.
Meanwhile, the Food and Drug Administration recently granted fast-track designation to two vaccine candidates from Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and its German partner BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX).
If the efforts of Pfizer and its partner are successful, they could manufacture up to 100 million doses by the end of 2020 and more than 1.2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
Jefferies analyst Michael Yee said in a note that there is a reasonable chance that the Moderna vaccine will work and get emergency approval by 2021.
On Monday, Moderna’s shares closed more than 14% higher at $ 71.78, crossing the $ 70 mark for the first time since the end of May.
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