Six Chinese volunteers received an experimental pandemic influenza vaccine in the China-Japan Friendship Hospital Wednesday in Beijing.

The vaccine is an inactivated sample of the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu.

The volunteers, the first batch of 120 approved for clinical study of the vaccine, reported no untoward reactions within a half hour of the inoculation.

The clinical study aims to test the safety and effectiveness ofthe vaccine, jointly developed by the Beijing-based Sinovac Biotech Co. and the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention

The experiments will last nine months, but preliminary conclusions are expected in around three months.

The volunteers were chosen from healthy people in the age bracket from 18 to 60 from Beijing.