AstraZeneca COVID-19 Vaccine To Hit Market By December 2020

AstraZeneca’s potential COVID-19 vaccine could hit the market by the end of 2020, Italian Health Minister Roberto Speranza hinted on Wednesday, September 02.

At the moment, several drugmakers are working on the COVID-19 vaccine and a few of them are in the final, large-scale clinical testing in humans and the British drugmaker AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine is one of them.

“We are talking about a potential vaccine so we need to be extremely prudent, but... if the vaccine is confirmed as safe and able to meet its objective it will be already available by the end of 2020,” Speranza said in his speech at the parliament.

So far, the COVID-19 pandemic has killed more than 850,000 and infected more than 25 million people. Several drugmakers and pharmaceutical companies around the world have joined the race to produce a viable coronavirus vaccine, which is being seen as the only solution available to restrict the spread of the pandemic.

The European Commission is known to have paid about $398 million to AstraZeneca to secure about 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccine for European Union nations.

The expedited production and testing of coronavirus vaccines around the world have sparked concerns as well, among people as well as health experts. They are concerned about the safety of the vaccine as well as its efficacy.

Usually, it takes about one to two years for pharmaceutical companies to come up with a safe as well as an effective medicine. However, with the coronavirus vaccine being released within a few months of starting the development is a matter of concern for people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has urged all drugmakers to not “cut corners” to win the race to come up with a coronavirus vaccine first. Pharmaceutical companies have been advised to duly test the shot concerning efficacy as well as safety in humans.