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The coronavirus vaccine could be available by October

The potential coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic vaccine might be available soon in the U.S. with a secured supply of 300 million doses. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) pledged $1.2 billion for AstraZeneca’s experimental COVID-19 vaccine of the first supply of 1 billion doses.

HHS made an agreement with AstraZeneca to accelerate the British pharmaceutical company’s vaccine development to secure doses from the first round of production. The securing of this potential vaccine is apart of the HHS’ Operation Warp Speed that is working towards providing an effective, safe, and widely available vaccine by 2021.

According to the U.S. Health Secretary, Alex Azar, claims that the HHS reports the potential vaccine could be available by October. The potential vaccine, AZD1222 (formerly named ChAdOx1 nCoV-19), was developed by Oxford University who is known for its accelerated vaccine development program.

Coronavirus: AstraZeneca to begin supply of potential COVID-19 vaccine in September https://t.co/BqDRhMgIHo

— SkyNews (@SkyNews) May 21, 2020

The uses of vaccines are unclear though as immunity to the new COVID-19 is uncertain. AstraZeneca’s deal with the U.S. allows Phase III (late-stage) clinical trial for 30,000 people.

World leaders are working to gather the funding to secure the potential vaccine in the hopes that the vaccine can improve stalled economies while having a competitive edge over international competitors. AstraZeneca committed to giving back to the Britain community, committing to deliver 100 million doses across the UK with 30 million to be available by September being the first ones to receive the vaccine.

There are currently over 100 programs for vaccine development with researchers, drugmakers, and governments with experts expect it could take 12 to 18 months to develop an effective, safe product to prevent the disease. Other pharmaceutical companies including Johnson&Johnson, Pfizer Inc, and Sanofi are working on potential vaccines but so far it looks like AstraZeneca will be the first to have their vaccine to hit the market.