The world's largest vaccine maker has said a Covid-19 immunisation will not be available on a mass scale until late 2021. Britain-based GlaxoSmithKline's CEO Emma Walmsley said even getting "hundreds of millions" of doses ready by the second half of next year would require swift progress to ensure safety.
It comes as US pharmaceutical corporation Pfizer claimed it could have a vaccine ready by this autumn, having already started mass manufacturing.
The firm's CEO Albert Bourla told The Wall Street Journal: "This is a crisis right now, and a solution is desperately needed by all." But while GlaxoSmithKline has confirmed developing a Covid-19 vaccine is its "primary aim" thanks to recent soaring profits, Ms Walmsley stuck to the 18-month