The EMA stressed this was a best case scenario.
A vaccine for the new coronavirus could be approved in a year’s time in an “optimistic” scenario, the European Medicines Agency said on Thursday.
“We can see the possibility, if everything goes as planned, that some of them (vaccines) could be ready for approval in a year from now, so beginning of 2021,” Marco Cavaleri, who heads the EMA’s vaccine division, said in a video news conference, according to AFP.
Cavaleri stressed that this is a best-case scenario and said that not all vaccines that come into development make it to authorisation.
Currently, there is no proven therapy for Covid-19 but an effective vaccine would allow countries and economies to fully reopen and has the potential to be very lucrative for the creators.
Studies are ongoing involving existing antiviral drugs to determine whether they can have a positive effect on people with Covid-19.
Some countries are tentatively easing Covid-19 restrictions in a bid to return to some kind of normality, although both France and Germany reported an increase in cases as they eased their restrictions.
South Korea, meanwhile, which has been praised for its response to the virus, is also seeing a resurgence in cases since the easing of restrictions.
The country is now grappling with some of its largest infection clusters yet after authorities began to loosen some social distancing restrictions this month, many of which are linked to a young man who visited several bars and nightclubs in Seoul on 1 May.
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