FDA promises coronavirus vaccine will meet high safety standards

Multiple promising vaccines for the coronavirus are in development, Peter Marks, the director of the Food and Drug Administration’s biologics center, said during an Axios virtual event Monday.

What he's saying: Marks said the vaccine will meet the FDA's high standards of efficacy and safety, while accelerating the approval process to combat for a vaccine.

What they're saying: Marks said he hopes a vaccine would be available within nine months, rather than the usual 12-18 months the process normally takes.

• “The hope is that by working with those [promising candidates] in a way that we haven’t done things exactly the same way in the past, will move the vaccine development forward in a way that could lead to a vaccine in maybe nine months instead of the 12-18 months that people have talked about," Marks said.

Our thought bubble: Axios' Bob Herman pointed out during the event that most experts say that nine months is optimistic to develop a vaccine, because it's never happened before.

Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that Marks hopes, not predicts, that a vaccine will be available within nine months.