(Yicai Global) March 20 -- Clinical trials of China's first inoculation for Covid-19 will run until Dec. 31 this year, according to data made public by the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry.

China approved the recombinant vaccine for clinical trials on March 16, CCTV reported. The shot was developed by a research team led by Chen Wei, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a researcher at the Institute of Biotechnology under the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

A staffer at the Military Medical Research Institute under the Academy of Military Science also told Red Star News yesterday that the vaccine's first-phase trials would likely run until the end of the year, without disclosing when the second phase would likely begin.

Vaccines must undergo four stages before commercialization in China: pre-clinical research, clinical research, registration and production.

Clinical trials for the Covid-19 shot are currently taking place at the Wuhan Rest Center of the Chinese People's Armed Police Force and Tongji Hospital, part of Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. The subjects are all healthy adults aged between 18 and 60, according to registration information.

China's Covid-19 vaccine research spans five major technological directions and is progressing well, Wang Junzhi, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at a press briefing on March 17. The country's Covid-19 in the pipeline have largely completed pre-clinical research and will have done so next month, he added.

Clinical trials take two to three years for regular vaccines but the urgency surrounding Covid-19 will speed the process up for these inoculations, vaccine expert Tao Lina told Red Star News. Clinical observation times for adenoviral vector vaccines in each phase may be greatly shortened due to the experiences with the Ebola vaccine, Tao added.

Editor: James Boynton