When will the Vaccine be Ready? - AstraZeneca's Top Scientist Reveal!

As scientists are racing against time to produce a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine, top drugs giant AstraZeneca said that a COVID-19 vaccine could still be available by as early as the end of the year. 

They also claimed that despite a randomised clinical trial being paused, the vaccine could still be available. "We could still have a vaccine by the end of this year, early next year," the UK-based company's chief executive Pascal Soriot said in comments at a media event.

Meanwhile earlier this week, AstraZeneca announced it had "voluntarily paused" its trial of a drug developed alongside Oxford University after a UK volunteer developed illness. 

According to NDTV reports, AstraZeneca's vaccine candidate is one of nine around the world currently in late-stage Phase 3 human trials. Currently, the company in the US is enrolling 30,000 volunteers across dozens of sites and smaller groups are being tested in Brazil and elsewhere in South America.

The vaccine is termed as AZD1222, which is a weakened version of a common cold-causing adenovirus engineered to code for the spike protein that the novel coronavirus uses to invade cells, NDTV further reported.