Coronavirus vaccine will take months - biotech exec

No manufacturer will have a coronavirus vaccine ready for use before the middle of 2020, despite an intensive global effort, a biotech executive told AFP on Friday.

Stephane Bancel is chief executive of Moderna Therapeutics, one of several entities involved in an all-out international effort to create a vaccine as soon as possible for the deadly SARS-like virus, also known as nCoV-2019, that has already killed more than 200 people.

Moderna is working in collaboration with the US National Institutes of Health, while Inovio Pharmaceuticals and the University of Queensland in Australia are pursuing alternative tracks.

They have all received funding from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), an international body established to finance costly biotechnology research.

But Bancel warned that "no manufacturer will be able to have a vaccine ready for the summer".

In a French-language interview with AFP, Bancel also described the technology Moderna was using in its approach.

"It is based on messenger RNA technology. Messenger RNA (mRNA) is a coded information molecule," he said. 

'Master the technology'

Moderna's website explains that "mRNA medicines are sets of...