BEIJING, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Chinese scientists are racing to develop vaccines against the novel coronavirus by adopting five technological approaches, a senior National Health Commission official said Friday.
The approaches include inactivated vaccines, genetic engineering subunit vaccines, adenovirus vector vaccines, nucleic acid vaccines, and vaccines using attenuated influenza virus as vectors, said Zeng Yixin, deputy director of the commission, at a press conference on China's fight against the novel coronavirus outbreak.
"These approaches are being carried out simultaneously," Zeng said, adding that some projects have entered the stage of animal testing.
"Under the premise of ensuring safety, effectiveness and accessibility of vaccines, we foresee that as soon as from April to May this year some vaccines could enter clinical trials, or under specific conditions, could be applied for emergency use," he said.
Research and development teams are racing against time to develop vaccines in the hope of putting them into use as early as possible, according to Zeng.
"Our goal is that if required by the outbreak situation, the emergency use of vaccines, as well as the emergency review and approval process, can be activated in accordance with laws," he said.
