Taiwan approves production and emergency use of local COVID-19 vaccine

The Taiwan government on July 19 approved the production and emergency use of the first locally developed COVID-19 vaccine by Medigen. While speaking at a press conference, Taiwan’s Food and Drug Administration Director-General Wu Shou-mei said that the vaccine produced by the Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. - officially known as MVC-COV1901 - will become available for public as early as August. Wu even informed that Medigen is designed for people aged over 20 who will get two shots 28 days apart. 

Back in June, the Taiwanese-based pharmaceutical company had announced that it had completed the second phase of the clinical trials for its COVID-19 vaccine candidate. It had said that the results met the safety standards set by the FDA for emergency use. Experts added that the early data suggested it was similarly effective to AstraZeneca’s jabs, however, they gave no details of its efficacy rate. 

During a press conference, Taiwan’s health minister said that there are “no major safety concerns”. Chen Shih-chung said "it will take some time to expand production capacity” but added that the first small supplies for the public could be expected in August. Chen further informed that Medigen’s offering is a “subunit vaccine” which teaches the body’s immune system to recognise the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to invade cells. 

Taiwan to purchase 5mn doses of Medigen vaccine 

According to The Mainichi report, now, as the company has been granted the emergency use authorization, it is working to conduct phase three clinical trials at home and abroad to seek international recognition. The Taiwan government reportedly signed contracts to purchase five million doses of the Medigen vaccine and another five million doses from another local vaccine maker, United Biomedical Inc., whose application for emergency use authorization is still pending. The government has also signed contracts to purchase nearly 20 million vaccines from Moderna, AstraZeneca and unspecified brands through the global COVAX facility.

As of Sunday, a total of 5.19 million COVID-19 vaccine doses had been reportedly administered in Taiwan, covering about 22 per cent of the total population. President Tsai Ing-wen has set the goal of having 20 to 25 per cent of the population receiving at least one dose of the two-shot vaccine regimen by the end of this month. Till now, Taiwan has received around 726,000 vaccine doses before the US and Japan donated 2.5 million and 3.37 million doses, respectively. 

(Image: PTI)