China's scientists unite in COVID-19 fight

In the battle against the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) has launched "Dealing With the Outbreak of COVID-19 Using Science and Technology," a program including four batches of 20 emergency projects until now.

Moreover, MOST is re-examining two major scientific and technological projects, including the "Creation of Important Innovative New Drugs" and the "Prevention and Treatment of Severe Contagions," and a series of national essential research and development plans. Recently, some important achievements from these projects have already been implemented in the front line of epidemic prevention and control.

When it comes to drug screening, front-line staff from different research teams collaborated on the basis of existing researches, making great efforts to systematically and massively screen the drugs already on the market or already go into clinical trials. As a consequence, they discovered potentially effective anti-coronavirus drugs, such as chloroquine phosphate, remdesivir, and favipiravir. Furthermore, in recent days, researchers have urgently launched some clinical trials and the results show that the curative effect of drugs on patients is increasingly obvious.