Scientists developing 'universal' coronavirus vaccine to prevent future pandemics and last updated 2021-02-18 16:30:25-05 IRVINE, Calif. â A team of scientists is developing a COVID-19 vaccine that could attack different strains of the virus and fend off future coronavirus outbreaks. âThe reason why we donât have a preemptive vaccine is because pharmaceutical companies donât make a vaccine for a disease that does not exist, because pharmaceutical companies are here to make a profit," said Dr. Lbachir BenMohamed, a professor of immunology and the director of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Immunology at the University of California, Irvine.