British national newspaper The Times reported on Thursday that senior sources in the British government expect that a verdict on whether US pharmaceutical company Pfizer Inc's (NYSE:PFE) COVID-19 vaccine works, will be available before the results are in on British pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca Plc's (STO:AZN)(LON:AZN) competing vaccine.

The Times report said that Britain believes that the vaccine, which Pfizer is co-developing with Germany's BioNTech SE, could be ready to distribute before Christmas.

Reportedly, Pfizer's Chief Executive, Albert Bourla, had previously said the company could release data on whether or not the vaccine works as early as October 2020.

Pfizer had said this week if trials are successful the company expects to file for emergency authorisation of the vaccine candidate from US regulators shortly after it has enough safety data in late November 2020.

According to Reuters news agency, Britain has supply deals for six vaccine candidates, including frontrunners from Pfizer and AstraZeneca.