The World Health Organization (WHO) said that a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) may be ready before the end of 2020.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus appealed to all world leaders to ensure equal distribution of vaccines when they become available.
“We will need vaccines and there is hope that by the end of this year we may have a vaccine. There is hope,” Tedros said in a speech.
The EU health regulator has launched a real-time review of a COVID-19 vaccine developed by US drugmaker Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech.
Rival vaccine developer AstraZeneca’s also made the announcement last week.
The announcement by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) could speed up the process of approving a successful vaccine in the bloc.
Nine experimental vaccines are under review in the hope that at least 2 billion vaccines will be distributed worldwide by the end of 2021.
“Especially for the vaccines and other products which are in the pipeline, the most important tool is political commitment from our leaders especially in the equitable distribution of the vaccines,” Tedros said.
WHO hopes that all nations will cooperate in ensuring that everyone will have complete access to the vaccine.
“We need each other, we need solidarity and we need to use all the energy we have to fight the virus,” Tedros added.
