Johnson & Johnson ‘pretty confident’ it can develop coronavirus vaccine

Drugmaker Johnson & Johnson is “pretty confident” that it can create a vaccine to combat the deadly coronavirus, an exec said Monday.

Paul Stoffels, the company’s chief scientific officer, said it began working on a vaccine two weeks ago — and is hopeful that it can be developed within months, CNBC reported.

“We have dozens of scientists working on this so we’re pretty confident we can get something made that will work and stay active for the longer term,” Stoffels told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”

But, he said, it could take up to a year for the vaccine to reach the market.

“We’ll see in the next few weeks how this goes,” Stoffels added, according to the report.

The flu-like virus — which emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan — has no known cure and can be transmitted between humans.

Officials say it has killed 81 people and spread to more than 2,8000 others.

January 27, 2020 

https://nypost.com/