BEIJING: China could start clinical trials for a potential vaccine for the novel coronavirus around late April, an official said Friday. Security personnel wearing face masks are seen at a checkpoint at the entrance of a residential compound, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Beijing, China. -Reuters“Several research teams were trying different techniques to develop a potential vaccine, and the earliest vaccine is expected to be submitted for clinical trials around late April,” Xu Nanping, vice science and technology minister, told a press briefing. Worker Wang Fu wears protective gloves as he prepares to sanitize a residential compound in the morning, as the country is hit by an outbreak of the novel coronavirus, in Beijing, China. -ReutersThese include using inactivated coronavirus to produce a vaccine, using genetic engineering to mass-produce proteins that could act as antigens for the novel coronavirus or modifying existing vaccines for influenza, Zeng said.

Source: New Strait Times February 21, 2020 09:22 UTC