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ADImmune wins NT$1bn loan

ADImmune Corp obtained a loan of NT$1 billion (about US$30 million) from eight banks in Taiwan yesterday to build a vaccine manufacturing plant capable of mass-producing enough avian influenza vaccines for everyone in Taiwan.

President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) and Vice President Vincent Siew (蕭萬長) attended a press conference to announce the loan yesterday to show the government’s support for building “the TSMC of the biomedical field.”

“This is an important milestone in the development of Taiwan’s biomedical industry,” Ma said, adding that Taiwan needs to “get ahead of the race.”

He said his support for Steve Chan (詹啟賢), chairman and chief executive officer of ADImmune, was based on friendship as well as because Chan served as deputy executive director of Ma’s presidential campaign.

ADImmune obtained the NT$1 billion loan and will complete increasing its capital to NT$1.3 billion in the near future to finance its operations.

Combined with the NT$500 million in government investment it recently received from the Executive Yuan Development Fund, its capital injection totals NT$2.8 billion, the largest capital increase received by a Taiwanese biomedical company.

The company plans to build a manufacturing plant that will meet the standards of both the EU and US Food and Drug Administration.

ADImmune already has a Good Manufacturing Process (GMP) level manufacturing plant in central Taiwan.

Once the new plant is completed, it will be able to produce 30 million shots of avian influenza vaccine a year.

“Our first priority is the H5N1 [avian influenza] vaccine, and we have already started researching and developing new production processes for the Japanese encephalitis vaccine,” said Ho Mei-shang (何美鄉), chief managing director of ADImmune.

“A vaccine for enterovirus is on our list as well,” Ho said.

While the size of the company’s vaccine market was still difficult to determine, Chan said, “the demand will most certainly exceed supply.”
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