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The European Medicines Agency predicts that there could be remedies for the coronavirus in the coming months and the approval of a vaccine in early 2021 “at best”.
Dr. Marco Cavaleri, director of the agency’s vaccine department, said Thursday at a press conference that approval of covid-19 treatments could occur “before the summer,” if laboratory experiments succeed. Recent trials suggest that remdesivir helps sufferers recover more quickly from the coronavirus, although further testing is still needed.
While it usually takes years to develop a vaccine, Cavaleri said that if the injections currently under test prove effective, they could be licensed early next year.
He cautioned, however, that many experimental vaccines are never approved, and that delays are common.
“But there is a possibility that, if everything goes as planned, a vaccine could be approved within a year,” he said.
More than 140 heads of state and scientists, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and renowned economist Joseph Stiglitz on Thursday called on all countries to cooperate to develop a vaccine against covid-19 that is free and easily accessible to all the peoples of the world.
There are currently about a dozen potential vaccines under experiment in China, Britain, Germany, and the United States. The World Health Organization estimates that it will take 12-18 months to develop an effective vaccine.
Although some experts have proposed that in this case the vaccine be exempt from going through substantial clinical tests, Cavaleri assured that this is not being considered.
“Our current strategy is that all vaccines in development should undergo extensive testing to determine what their level of protection is,” he said.
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