It would likely go in parallel, that's why the paper is published on the preprint server. Paper reviews in major journals like Nature can easily take over a year but that is mostly to get the scientific "bragging rights" these days. It has little effect on further research and drug development since the information is out there already.

The part that is most relevant for the development of a new drug/treatment is the safety and efficiency testing in the clinical studies - and that alone will take many months. It can be shortened if it is a drug that has been used before for something else (e.g. that chloroquine for malaria) and is only repurposed because there we know the drug is safe already. For a completely new drug it could take a year or more just to do the testing and get the approvals.

So I wouldn't have high hopes to see this being deployed widely any time soon.

> For a completely new drug it could take a year or more just to do the testing and get the approvals.

> So I wouldn't have high hopes to see this being deployed widely any time soon.

I don't know, I mean, this is one of those things where compassionate use seems likely? Won't we end up trying that and doing studies on them after?

You can't "do studies on them after". These aren't studies for the sake of publishing papers but to determine whether or not the drug is safe to use and whether it is actually effective.

If the drug or vaccine you are developing ends up killing more people than saving it is not much of a cure, is it?

The same if the drug isn't effective - in that case it would be wasting critical resources and probably causing the sick to not get a really effective treatment.

That said, this process will be certainly sped up to maximum amount possible, given the situation, but it will still take a long time.

You can. If you give it on a compassionate use basis to folks who are dying and if 50% more live vs. comparables then there's your study.

for a small compound drug, discovery to prescribable is about 10-12 years.

Biologics like this are new enough that we don’t really know the time courses but in a normal situation it’s still multiple years.