Coronavirus Vaccine “Will Take Over A Year” To Develop, Warns Big Pharma Exec

Markets soared on Tuesday after the Trump administration pumped out overly optimistic headlines of an early-stage trial for a coronavirus vaccine could start within the next three months. It appears “trade optimism” to save the stock market has turned to “coronavirus cure optimism.” 

The CEO of Novartis added some color on timelines of a potential vaccine for the deadly virus, which has infected over 6,000 people, with 132 deaths across China. 

Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, told CNBC on Wednesday that it could take upwards of one year to find a new vaccine, which he called the outbreak across the world “very serious.”

“The reality is, it will take over a year in my expectation to really find a new vaccine for this so, we need to really use epidemiological controls to really get this situation in a better place,” Narasimhan told CNBC’s Julianna Tatelbaum. 

Already, scientists in Australia have attempted to create a lab-grown version of coronavirus, and it could be studied to develop virus detection tests and vaccines eventually, Reuters reported. 

Investors appear less optimistic about the Trump administration’s short timeline of the creation of a new vaccine and are listening to experts, like Narasimhan, who gives a rather gloomy view that the world could be without a proven vaccine for one year while the virus spreads across the globe. 

We noted on Tuesday how a commercially available vaccine for the virus could “take months” to develop, but here’s the catch: it would take over a year to test on animals before the drug was fit for humans.

Maybe it’s time to buy some more N95 masks…