A leading British scientist has made a significant breakthrough in the race for a coronavirus vaccine by reducing a part of the normal development time from "two to three years to just 14 days", news reported.

Robin Shattock, head of mucosal infection and immunity at Imperial College London, said he is now at the stage to start testing the vaccine on animals as early as next week with human studies in the summer if enough funding is secured.

"Conventional approaches usually take at least two to three years before you even get to the clinic," he told Sky. "And we've gone from that sequence to generating a candidate in the laboratory in 14 days."

The vaccine will be too late for this current outbreak but it will be crucial if there is another one.