BEIJING, May 11: The People’s Republic of China will welcome Pakistani scientists to help developing anti-Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome vaccine and drugs, said Zhang Fei, a senior medical scientist in Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“We are looking forward for a medium and long term collaboration in the field,” he said here in an interview with APP.

He said that a number of international institutions had also offered their cooperation for adopting a common strategy to tackle the situation. He hoped that Pakistanis would also come forward and play their role at such a juncture.

He said that Pakistan had the potential and talent to help fight the SARS epidemic. The medical scientists at National Institute of Health (NIH), Islamabad, and H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry in Karachi could assist in undertaking the task of developing anti-SARS vaccine and drugs, the opined.

The Chinese medical scientist said that the two countries could share experience and know-how for meeting the new challenge.

Yuan Zhenghong, director of a Shanghai-based national key laboratory under the Ministry of Health, said that local research bodies were cooperating with institutions home and abroad on the study of the SARS vaccine.

The local scientists were expected to put forward a blue print of the development of the vaccine in the near future, he added.