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GENEVA: A COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by the end of the year, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday (October 6), without giving further details.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called for solidarity and political commitment from all leaders to ensure equitable distribution of vaccines when available.
“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we can have a vaccine. There is hope,” Tedros said in closing remarks at the WHO Executive Board meeting that reviewed the global response to the pandemic.
READ: China in talks with WHO on evaluating its COVID-19 vaccines for global use
The European Union’s health regulator released a real-time review of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech, it said on Tuesday, following a similar announcement for the hit by rival AstraZeneca last week. .
The announcement by the European Medicines Agency could speed up the approval process for a successful vaccine on the block.
Nine experimental vaccines are in the pipeline of the WHO-led global COVAX vaccine facility, which aims to deliver 2 billion doses by the end of 2021.
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So far, some 168 countries have joined the COVAX facility, but neither China, the United States, nor Russia are among them. The Trump administration has said that instead it relies on bilateral agreements to secure supplies from vaccine manufacturers.
“Especially for vaccines and other products that are in development, the most important tool is the political commitment of our leaders, especially in the equitable distribution of vaccines,” said Tedros.
“We need each other, we need solidarity and we need to use all the energy we have to fight the virus,” he said.
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