There is a “slim” chance that the Oxford Covid-19 vaccine could be ready before Christmas, the chairwoman of the UK Vaccine Taskforce has said.

Kate Bingham said she was “hopeful” of getting trial data from the Oxford study, as well as the vaccine from Pfizer BionNTech, before the end of the year.

Both studies are currently in phase three clinical trials, meaning that the vaccine has been given to thousands of participants to check its safety and effectiveness – the final stage before researchers submit their data to regulators for approval.

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Ms Bingham said that she felt “optimistic” from the positive data seen so far.

However, she said that people should not assume that a Covid-19 vaccine would be “better” than the flu vaccine “for the moment”.

And she said it would be reasonable to assume that any vaccine would require more than one dose.

The ideal vaccination would provide life-long protection, with the other “bookend” being a vaccine which does not stop infection but reduces severity of symptoms.

Anything that falls in that spectrum would be a “plus”, she said.

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Asked what the chances were for having the vaccine before Christmas, she told the PA news agency: “I think it’s a slim chance, but there is a chance, that we could have the Oxford vaccine before Christmas.”

Asked about which phase three data would report this year, she said: “I’m hopeful that there will be two vaccines where we’ll be able to look at the phase three data this year.”

It would be “possible” for a vaccine this year, she continued, but that depends on a number of factors including ensuring enough people are recruited into the studies and then whether enough infections are seen in the placebo group.

Once enough data is collated this will then be assessed by regulators.

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“So, if everything works, yes it’s possible we could get a vaccine this year but it’s most likely that it’ll be next year,” she said.

The UK government has six vaccine candidates in its portfolio, produced by AstraZeneca and Oxford University; BioNTech and Pfizer; Valneva; Novavax; Johnson & Johnson; and GlaxoSmithKline.

Ms Bingham said that the portfolio was “spread across the ones that are most advanced through to the ones that we think are most likely to work and be safest.”

She added: “I am optimistic that we will see something – four of our six vaccines are now in phase three studies, and in each of them we’ve seen very positive data in the phase one and two clinical studies, which shows that people who have received the vaccine do elicit a strong immune response, and that, and if you take the neutralising antibodies that are triggered those antibodies are able to kill live Covid virus."