Experts warn global Covid vaccine could take until late 2023

‘Enormous’ challenge ahead to meet demand

DESPITE global efforts to develop and deploy a successful Covid-19 vaccine to end the current pandemic, analysis of vaccine development and manufacture scaleup point to a Covid-19 vaccine achieving global coverage in late 2023. While vaccine efforts continue, it is recommended that other mechanisms should be employed to help manage the crisis.

These findings were highlighted by two recent reports, contributed to by IChemE members, which investigated the delivery of a successful vaccine. One report, released by the Center for Global Development (CGD), uses modelling and expert opinion to estimate timelines and the probabilities for developing and producing a successful vaccine. The second other report, released by the Royal Society convened group DELVE (Data Evaluation and Learning for Viral Epidemics), focuses on the challenges involved in vaccine delivery, from development to deployment.