Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Zhao Lijian briefed about the latest development of Chinese vaccines trials on the Regular Press Conference on 18 November 2020 as follows:
China’s vaccine development progress can be summed up in two “fives”:
First, after the pandemic broke out, the Chinese government at the earliest time possible laid out five technical routes including 1) inactivated vaccines, 2) recombinant vaccines, 3) adenovirus-based vaccines, 4) live-attenuated vaccines and 5) nucleic acid vaccines. Vaccine research and development has been carried out in an orderly manner.
Second, five Chinese vaccine candidates are under phase 3 clinical trials in countries including the UAE, Brazil, Pakistan and Peru, and phase one and phase two clinical trials of some other vaccines are accelerated.
Following scientific rules and regulations, Chinese researchers and scientists have been working around the clock and making arduous efforts on the vaccines. I look forward to hearing good news about them as soon as possible.
The Chinese government and companies have been proactively participating in international cooperation on vaccines through bilateral and multilateral channels. Besides cooperation with the countries I talked about earlier, China is also in close communication and cooperation with international organizations such as the WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations. We are part of the WHO-sponsored Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator initiative and the Solidarity Trial for COVID-19 treatments. China has also joined COVAX to promote fair distribution of vaccines, ensure the provision of vaccines for developing countries, and encourage more capable countries to support COVAX. We hope Chinese vaccines will be included in COVAX’s procurement list as soon as possible after their development, which will contribute to the accessibility and affordability of vaccines in developing countries.
