Pictet Wealth Management believes that the intense and collective intellectual efforts worldwide will yield an accelerated outcome with a coronavirus vaccine very likely available by year-end.
«Our central scenario today is that with 80% probability there will be a vaccine by year-end by the likes of Pfizer or someone like that,» according to a «Bloomberg» report citing the Swiss pure play’s chief investment officer Cesar Perez Ruiz.
Ruiz expects the vaccine to be first made available to those most at risk before being rolled out to the general population by the summer of 2021.
Currently, there are over 130 coronavirus vaccines under development and around the same number of treatments.
«Whole Intellect of the World at Work»
While the fastest vaccine previously developed took four years, Ruiz believes this time will be different due to collective global efforts to combat the pandemic.
«We’re putting the whole intellect of the world at work to get that shortened as much as possible,» he explained.
Pictet Wealth Management, which oversees 218 billion Swiss francs ($230 billion) in assets under management, is currently forecasting a 4 percent global GDP contraction in 2020 followed by a 6 percent rebound in 2021. In anticipation of stronger growth, the private bank has boosted its equity holdings in Europe, Japan and Greater China, the report added.
