Australia’s national science agency has said it has commenced the first stage of testing potential vaccines for Covid-19, as it joins a global race to halt the coronavirus pandemic.

The first phase of testing would take around three months, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation Health Director Rob Grenfell told Reuters, adding that any resulting vaccine would not be available to the public before late next year.

“Were still sticking to the optimistic 18 months for delivery of vaccine to the general consumers,” Grenfell said. “There’s a lot of technical challenges that were having to go through.”