《TAIPEI TIMES》 Medigen to work on COVID-19 vaccine

EXPEDITED: While animal testing for vaccine development normally takes four to six months, the firm plans to finish the tests before the end of June, a spokesman said

By Kao Shih-ching / Staff reporter

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Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp （高端疫苗） would cooperate with the US National Institutes of Health to develop a vaccine against COVID-19, the company said yesterday, adding that it plans to begin animal testing in the second quarter of this year.

The Hsinchu-based company on Sunday signed an agreement with the US agency, which is to provide a vaccine candidate and the viral spike protein to Medigen for testing and development, spokesman Leo Lee （李思賢） told a news conference in Taipei.

Medigen would use recombinant spike protein technology to develop the vaccine, Lee said.

The agency last month partnered with US-based Moderna Inc to develop a vaccine utilizing messenger RNA technology.

Medigen would inject the spike protein-based vaccine candidate into rats to observe their immunogenicity and examine whether the vaccine prototype is safe, Lee said.

While animal testing for vaccine development normally takes four to six months, the firm plans to finish the tests before the end of June to speed up the process, he added.

It then plans to apply to the Food and Drug Administration （FDA） to run a double-blind clinical test in the second half of this year, concentrating on the vaccines’ efficacy and safety, he added.

Medigen would not conduct human trials on infected people, but on healthy volunteers, vice chairman Charles Chen （陳燦堅） said.

“It will not be accurate to run preliminary tests on infected people. As patients’ immune systems would create antibodies, we would not know whether their recovery is attributable to their own antibodies or the vaccine’s,” Chen said.

The number of volunteers and the duration of the tests would be determined by FDA regulations, he said.

“The government might allow us to speed up the process and recruit fewer volunteers, but we expect to at least complete phase one tests or combine phase one and two tests to save time,” Chen said.

If the vaccine is proven effective, Medigen expects to manufacture and sell it in Taiwan and neighboring countries, Chen added.

Chen, who discussed the cooperation with the US agency before the Lunar New Year holiday, said the two sides have been producing dengue vaccines since 2016.

Compared with the regular development of vaccines, the research and development costs for a vaccine against COVID-19 would be much lower due to the US agency’s resources, Medigen financial director Jade Yang （楊郁萍） said.

新聞來源：TAIPEI TIMES