EU chief hopes for coronavirus vaccine this year

The president of the European Commission said Tuesday that, after speaking to a German biotech firm, she hopes a vaccine against the novel coronavirus strain will be available this year. Brussels' top official Ursula von der Leyen held talks with executives from CureVac, a company that has received an offer of 80 million euros ($88 million) in EU financial support for its research. But her prediction is far more confident than that of many health experts, who predict that it will take at least a year and more likely 18 months or more to find, test and get approval for a drug. "They are working on a promising technology to develop a vaccine against the coronavirus," the former German defence minister said in a online video message shortly before she was to join talks with the 27 EU leaders.