Texas-based company claims to have developed coronavirus vaccine

The vaccine will first need to be tested on animals, but could be available by the end of the year.

By DONNA RACHEL EDMUNDS
A doctor prepares a syringe as part of the start of the seasonal influenza vaccination campaign in Nice, France October 24, 2018. (photo credit: REUTERS/ERIC GAILLARD)
A doctor prepares a syringe as part of the start of the seasonal influenza vaccination campaign in Nice, France October 24, 2018.
(photo credit: REUTERS/ERIC GAILLARD)
Texas-based genetic engineering firm Greffex claims to have developed a vaccine for the coronavirus. The company will soon begin testing it on animals to meet licensing requirements.
Greffex CEO John Price told Fox News the company was "confident in the quality of the vaccine," but that next steps depended on "what the government wants to do in terms of testing."
Greffex has a track record in vaccination development, having previously formulated a vaccine for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), which was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012.
"The disease that we're working with right now, COVID-19, has a tremendous number of similarities [with] MERS. So what we were able to do was take the knowledge" we already had to create the vaccine, he said.
However, it won't be available to the human population for some months at least, as the prototype vaccine will first need to be tested on animals.
"The earliest, we think, would be the end of the year," Price said, "The latest would be eighteen months. But we think we could – depending on the approval process of the government – get something in 2020."
The vaccine could potentially be available earlier in the year, as there are ways to fast track the process, Price said, but he added: "Again, that's a policy decision for the government," including classification of the virus according to threat.
"If it's truly a pandemic, then you can pretty much do whatever you want," he said. "The process is roughly four weeks for the first animal test, and then you go into human trials. That's the part that will be determined by the government."