Could still have a vaccine by the end of the year, early next year: AstraZeneca CEO

After it "paused" its clinical trial over the vaccine this week, AstraZeneca's CEO Pascal Soriot said today that a vaccine was still possible by the "end of this year, early next year".

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The company stopped its late-stage trials after a participant in Britain fell ill. The volunteer reportedly had a rare spinal inflammatory disorder called transverse myelitis, but a final diagnosis is pending with more tests underway.

Also Read:AstraZeneca 'voluntarily pauses' clinical trials for Oxford's COVID-19 vaccine

US National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins told a Senate committee hearing that "work was underway to see if anybody else who received that vaccination or any other might have had a similar finding of a spinal cord problem."

Pascal Soriot said the company should know before the end of the year whether its experimental vaccine protects people against coronavirus. "We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year," he added.

Also Read:Trials of Oxford University's COVID-19 vaccine 'paused', what now?

Soriot said pausing trials was not a new phenomena. "It's very common, actually, and many experts will tell you this," Soriot said, adding: "The difference with other vaccine trials is, the whole world is not watching them, of course. They stop, they study, and they restart."

AstraZeneca's CEO informed that it has capacity for 3 billion doses at sites around the world to prevent governments from restricting distribution.

"AstraZeneca would supply vaccines to countries at the same time to ensure a fair and equitable distribution," Soriot said.