But health experts cautioned that the vaccine, should it be approved, was no silver bullet - not least because the genetic material it is made from needs to be stored at temperatures of minus 70 deg C or below.
That is a problem given the World Health Organisation estimates 70 per cent of people must be inoculated to end the pandemic, and Asia alone is home to more than 4.6 billion - or three-fifths of the global population. "On the cold chain requirement of minus 70 deg, that is a hefty requirement. We do not have such a facility," Philippines' Health Secretary Francisco Duque told Reuters.
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