Two drugmakers plan to seek regulatory approval for jointly developed coronavirus vaccines by the end of 2020. They expect to have the capability to produce millions of vaccines at that time, according to a Friday report.

The chief executive of German firm BioNTech SE, which has partnered with Pfizer Inc. on vaccine development, told the Wall Street Journal he is confident about the timeline. Pfizer had announced in May that the companies were already scaling up production potential with an aim to rapidly make and distribute doses globally. 

BioNTech’s co-founder and CEO, Ugur Sahin, M.D., Ph.D., now projects that more than one billion doses could be produced by 2021.

Yet even if several companies produce a vaccine simultaneously, controlling the spread of COVID-19 is a distant goal, Sahin told the Journal. “I assume that we will only be done with this virus when more than 90% of the global population will get immunity, either through infection or through a vaccine,” he said.

In other coronavirus vaccine news

Just over half of Americans say they’ll get vaccinated against the coronavirus: If a vaccine were currently available, 57% of Americans surveyed said they’d get it. One quarter said they were uncertain. But at least 60% to 70% of the population may need to be vaccinated in order to confer herd immunity, said Tufts University Professor Jennifer Allen. “It’s evident that we need to begin working on a national vaccine strategy and education campaign right now — even before we have the vaccine in hand.”