Dr. Sonia Macieiewski (R) and Dr. Nita Patel, Director of Antibody discovery and Vaccine development, look at a sample of a respiratory virus at Novavax labs in Rockville, Maryland on March 20, 2020, one of the labs developing a vaccine for the coronavirus, COVID-19.

As the coronavirus continues to spread around the world, teams of experts are scrambling to develop a vaccine to protect millions of people from infection.

Finding a vaccine is a collaborative effort, experts say, and is expected to take around 12-18 months. The WHO said at the weekend that there are currently 70 vaccine candidates in development.

But who, or which country, gets priority when a vaccine is finally found is yet to be seen and could prove controversial.

The president of Germany's Federal Institute of Vaccines and Biomedicines, an agency of the German Ministry of Health, told CNBC that the race to develop a vaccine is a collaborative and cooperative effort.

"Everybody has been working on a vaccine for everybody," Professor Klaus Cichutek, president of the Paul-Ehrlich-Institut told CNBC Tuesday. "That's a global thing we have to do and there's nothing like 'only a vaccine for the U.S'., or Germany, or whatever."

Vaccine development is a labor-intensive endeavor; it's costly and it takes time, often several years of research and development and clinical trials. Time is of the essence when it comes to the coronavirus, however, with almost 2 million confirmed infections of Covid-19 so far worldwide, and over 126,000 deaths, according to data collated by Johns Hopkins University (JHU).

The future distribution of a vaccine could depend on the characteristics of the product, how many vaccine doses can be produced, and in what amount of time, Cichutek said.

"I cannot say exactly how this (distribution) will work but I'm sure everyone is dedicated to the world and not only to their nations or key regions. This is a global effort where the world and humankind needs a good vaccine and we need more than one."