CNN reported that the US remains on target to have a COVID-19 vaccine available by the end of 2020 or early 2021, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner, Dr Stephen Hahn, said on Thursday.
Hahn was quoted as telling ABC's Whit Johnson, during an appearance on Good Morning America: "FDA has given authorisation to proceed with clinical trials for four separate vaccines and we've seen a number of vaccine developers come forward -- double digit numbers -- so we have a lot of different, if you will, shots on goal with respect to vaccines. That's good news."
"We expect two of these vaccines to go in the late stage of clinical trials, which are large clinical trials, in this month. We are on target to reach a vaccine by year's end or early next year, so I'm cautiously optimistic. Of course it depends upon the data that are generated from the trial," Hahn said.
Hahn added that FDA's job is to assess the data and science from the trials to determine the safety and efficacy of that vaccine.
According to the World Health Organisation, there are 17 candidate vaccines in clinical evaluation globally.
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