The head of the Irish drugs firm that is involved in international Covid-19 vaccine trials said that large parts of the vulnerable Irish population will have been vaccinated against Covid-19 by April or May, promising to transform the economic outlook by next summer.
Cathal Friel, executive chairman of pharmaceutical services firm Open Orphan, said economic restrictions will “by and large” be lifted by early summer because there will be a number of vaccines developed for the coronavirus available around the world by that time.
“By next April and May, a majority of the most vulnerable groups, the sick, the infirm” in Ireland will be vaccinated, boosting the confidence of Government that it can call a halt to major health restrictions “and, as such, life will start getting back to normal”, Mr Friel said in an interview.
Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) was founded in 2017, with the goal of rapidly building Europe’s leading pharma services company by a management team with extensive industry and financial expertise. The company comprises of two commercial specialist CRO services businesses (Venn Life Sciences and hVIVO) and is also developing a genomics data platform business (Genomic Health Data).
