Dr Chen Shih-Chung, the Commander of the Epidemic Command Center, said on the 7th that the health authority already had meetings with two domestic vaccine developers about offering help to accelerate their COVID 19 vaccine development projects which have now entered Phase II trials. Dr Chen expressed that the authority will streamline the administrative procedure through the pathway of “CDE Can Help”. As the virus mutates quickly, it is extremely important that we are able to develop and manufacture vaccines in Taiwan. “The government will fully support it,” said Dr Chen.
Medigen Vaccine Biologics and United Biomedical, two vaccine developers based in Taiwan, respectively announced the commencement of the Phase II trials on their COVID 19 vaccines. Dr Chen Shih-Chung promised to coordinate the government’s supports to expedite the administrative review procedure through the pathway of “CDE Can Help”.
During the meeting with the vaccine developers, there were discussions about the production capacities, prices, procurement volume, etc. The Command Center’s vaccine procurement principle is to order no more than 10 million doses from each developer. The two domestic developers expressed their concerns that the government will also apply this procurement cap to their vaccines.
The two developers also mentioned the challenges of running huge clinical trials which will involve more than 3700 and 3800 subjects respectively. Dr Chen replied that the government already established a platform in last December to help create a database of potential trial subjects. Vaccine developers shall be able to get support from this platform. The CDE will assist developers with the IRB assessment, said Dr Chen.
【2021-02-08 / United Daily】
