Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) yesterday reported higher neutralizing antibody levels in people who were given its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster after two AstraZeneca doses, the company said.
In a trial of 200 participants who received Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine, neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 grew by 5.7 times one month after being administered, Taoyuan General Hospital said.
Medigen said that the results have been submitted to medRxiv, an online platform for researchers to share complete but unpublished papers.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Another trial conducted by National Taiwan University Hospital showed that among 45 participants who received three doses of the Medigen vaccine, the level of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant gradually fell, similar to those who received three doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines such as those made by Pfizer-BionNTech and Moderna Inc.
“This result indicates that our vaccine, as a booster shot, provided protection against the Omicron variant to some degree,” Medigen said.
The company said that people who have received adenovirus-based vaccines, such as the one made by AstraZeneca, or mRNA-based vaccines could consider taking the Medigen vaccine as a third shot given its safety profile, mild side effects and immunogenicity.
Medigen’s vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine, developed by recombinant technology. It comprises the recombinant spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as the antigen to help a person’s body recognize the virus if a person becomes infected.
The company said that it would recruit 960 participants for a “mix-and-match” clinical trial in which it plans to test the safety and immunogenicity of different combinations of multiple brands of COVID-19 vaccines.
Medigen has received a subsidy of US$2.3 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international foundation, to conduct the trial.
The trial is to be carried out in four hospitals, and recruitment of participants has begun, it said.
As of Sunday, 1.51 million people had received two doses of Medigen’s vaccine, accounting for four percent of 36.17 million who had received two COVID-19 shots, while 112,838 people had chosen the vaccine as booster shot, Centers for Disease Control data showed.
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
Taiwanese manufacturers have a chance to play a key role in the humanoid robot supply chain, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) chairman Yen Jui-hsiung (嚴瑞雄) said yesterday. That is because Taiwanese companies are capable of making key parts needed for humanoid robots to move, such as harmonic drives and planetary gearboxes, Yen said. This ability to produce these key elements could help Taiwanese manufacturers “become part of the US supply chain,” he added. Yen made the remarks a day after Nvidia Corp cofounder and chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said his company and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) are jointly
MARKET SHIFTS: Exports to the US soared more than 120 percent to almost one quarter, while ASEAN has steadily increased to 18.5 percent on rising tech sales The proportion of Taiwan’s exports directed to China, including Hong Kong, declined by more than 12 percentage points last year compared with its peak in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said on Thursday last week. The decrease reflects the ongoing restructuring of global supply chains, driven by escalating trade tensions between Beijing and Washington. Data compiled by the ministry showed China and Hong Kong accounted for 31.7 percent of Taiwan’s total outbound sales last year, a drop of 12.2 percentage points from a high of 43.9 percent in 2020. In addition to increasing trade conflicts between China and the US, the ministry said
RSS