On Wednesday, Sky News reported, a leading British scientist has made a significant breakthrough in the race for a coronavirus vaccine. As a result the normal development time of “two to three years [has been reduced] to just 14 days”, reported Sky news.

According to Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, the development of the vaccine is at the animal testing stage. If sufficient funding is secured, human studies could begin as early as this summer.

“Conventional approaches usually take at least two to three years before you even get to the clinic,” said Shattock to Sky. “And we’ve gone from that sequence to generating a candidate in the laboratory in 14 days.”

The vaccine will be a little late for the current outbreak but could play a significantly larger role if there is another one, said Sky.