Most of the companies and universities working on vaccines have experience on earlier coronaviruses: for example Moderna and the Jenner Institute / Vaccitech wo

Most of the companies and universities working on vaccines have experience on earlier coronaviruses: for example Moderna and the Jenner Institute / Vaccitech worked previously with MERS vaccines. So they're not starting from scratch. Other companies like Sinovac have also been doing challenge testing already (I believe Oxford too, but AFAICS they haven't published anything yet) in animals, so far with good results. EDIT: Sinovac findings were a preprint, but now it's been published in Science, so I guess it has more weight. Also to speed up trials, Oxford is doing a hybrid Phase II / Phase III trial, hoping to get emergency use authorization in September if vaccine responses are positive. Lastly, most companies and consortia are ramping up manufacturing at-risk (because there's no guarantee vaccines will work) to make sure the demand is met earlier. So it is likely that if a vaccine works, it will be around earlier than before. Whether everyone will be able to have it, is a different matter entirely.