Taiwanese vaccine maker Adimmune Corp (國光生技) yesterday said it has received approval from the Chinese government for it to start phase three clinical trials of its flu vaccine in China, enabling it to enter the market next year.
The company plans to launch the vaccine immediately after receiving Chinese approval in the first half of next year, company vice president Simon Kao (高聖凱) said.
The company expects to sell less than 1 million vials of vaccine in China next year, but the volume should increase to between 3 million and 5 million vials in 2016, accounting for 10 percent of the market, Kao said.
There are currently 10 companies making flu vaccines in 0.5cc vials, and nine making 0.25cc vials. Adimmune is capable of making vaccines in both sizes, Kao said.
Flu vaccine in China is priced between 10 yuan and 60 yuan (US$1.65 and US$9.85) per vial, while the average price of Adimmune’s will be between 50 yuan and 60 yuan, Kao said.
The company sells 1.5 million vials of flu vaccine in Taiwan at between NT$100 to NT$150 each, it said, adding that domestic sales of the vaccine would account for 40 percent of its revenue this year.
Thanks to the Cross-strait Cooperation Agreement on Medicine and Public Health Affairs (兩岸醫藥衛生合作協議), the company spent only three years to get the green light to start the phase three trials, shorter than five to six years for other companies, Kao said.
“We will be the first company to launch a medical product in China without building a plant there,” chairman Steve Chan (詹啟賢) said.
Meanwhile, Chan said Adimmune’s vaccine for H7N9 avian influenza will complete phase one clinical trails by January and phase two clinical trials by June.
From January through last month, the company posted revenue of NT$273.8 million (US$9.32 million), up 18.23 percent from NT$231.57 million a year ago, as sales to its partner, Dutch-based Crucell, rose to 370g from 200g last year, chief financial officer Vic Chang (張哲瑋) said.
Sales to Crucell, which account for 60 percent of the company’s revenue this year, are expected to increase next year as the company started to provide about 75g to 100g adjuvants for curing hepatitis A, which are twice as expensive as its flu vaccine, Chang said.
Adimmune is likely to remain in the red this year, he said.
The company reported losses of NT$309.25 million in the first half of the year, compared with losses of NT$284.74 million a year ago.
Adimmune‘s shares rose 6.07 percent to NT$47.15 yesterday.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) yesterday said that its investment plan in Arizona is going according to schedule, following a local media report claiming that the company is planning to break ground on its third wafer fab in the US in June. In a statement, TSMC said it does not comment on market speculation, but that its investments in Arizona are proceeding well. TSMC is investing more than US$65 billion in Arizona to build three advanced wafer fabs. The first one has started production using the 4-nanometer (nm) process, while the second one would start mass production using the
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
‘SILVER LINING’: Although the news caused TSMC to fall on the local market, an analyst said that as tariffs are not set to go into effect until April, there is still time for negotiations US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he would likely impose tariffs on semiconductor, automobile and pharmaceutical imports of about 25 percent, with an announcement coming as soon as April 2 in a move that would represent a dramatic widening of the US leader’s trade war. “I probably will tell you that on April 2, but it’ll be in the neighborhood of 25 percent,” Trump told reporters at his Mar-a-Lago club when asked about his plan for auto tariffs. Asked about similar levies on pharmaceutical drugs and semiconductors, the president said that “it’ll be 25 percent and higher, and it’ll
CHIP BOOM: Revenue for the semiconductor industry is set to reach US$1 trillion by 2032, opening up opportunities for the chip pacakging and testing company, it said ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光投控), the world’s largest provider of outsourced semiconductor assembly and test (OSAT) services, yesterday launched a new advanced manufacturing facility in Penang, Malaysia, aiming to meet growing demand for emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence (AI) applications. The US$300 million facility is a critical step in expanding ASE’s global footprint, offering an alternative for customers from the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea and China to assemble and test chips outside of Taiwan amid efforts to diversify supply chains. The plant, the company’s fifth in Malaysia, is part of a strategic expansion plan that would more than triple
RSS