A locally developed emergency vaccine against the virulent H5N1 strain of bird flu is expected to be ready for clinical trials in the second half of this year, a senior Department of Health (DOH) official said on Friday.
The emergency vaccine, developed by the National Health Research Institute, will mainly be used for emergency use in the event of an H5N1 outbreak in humans, said Shih Wen-yi (施文儀), deputy director of the DOH’s Centers for Disease Control.
Shih said the DOH was scheduled to authorize clinical trials for the locally developed bird flu vaccines in the second quarter of this year and that the first phase of the trials were expected to get underway in the third quarter.
As the research institute has a limited production capacity, Shih said, the locally developed vaccine would only be enough for emergency use if Taiwan was struck by an H5N1 outbreak in humans.
A few years ago, the DOH launched a build-operate-own (BOO) project under which a private contractor was chosen to produce locally developed human bird flu vaccines.
The bid, however, was dropped because the winning contractor was later merged into another entity in a corporate restructuring.
Shih said the DOH was appraising the feasibility of renewing the BOO project to draw the private sector into investing in human H5N1 vaccine production.
Meanwhile, a research team headed by Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) at the institute’s Genomics Research Center has developed DNA-based vaccines against both human influenza and avian flu, academic sources said.
The sources said the procedural platform developed by the team could produce the DNA-based vaccines for emergency use within six months.
The team’s research findings have been published in the US science journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Trips for more than 100,000 international and domestic air travelers could be disrupted as China launches a military exercise around Taiwan today, Taiwan’s Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) said yesterday. The exercise could affect nearly 900 flights scheduled to enter the Taipei Flight Information Region (FIR) during the exercise window, it added. A notice issued by the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration showed there would be seven temporary zones around the Taiwan Strait which would be used for live-fire exercises, lasting from 8am to 6pm today. All aircraft are prohibited from entering during exercise, it says. Taipei FIR has 14 international air routes and
Taiwan lacks effective and cost-efficient armaments to intercept rockets, making the planned “T-Dome” interception system necessary, two experts said on Tuesday. The concerns were raised after China’s military fired two waves of rockets during live-fire drills around Taiwan on Tuesday, part of two-day exercises code-named “Justice Mission 2025.” The first wave involved 17 rockets launched at 9am from Pingtan in China’s Fujian Province, according to Lieutenant General Hsieh Jih-sheng (謝日升) of the Office of the Deputy Chief of the General Staff for Intelligence at the Ministry of National Defense. Those rockets landed 70 nautical miles (129.6km) northeast of Keelung without flying over Taiwan,
The Ministry of National Defense (MND) today released images of the military tracking China’s People's Liberation Army (PLA) movements during the latest round of Chinese drills around Taiwan. The PLA began "Justice Mission 2025" drills today, carrying out live-fire drills, simulated strikes on land and maritime targets, and exercises to blockade the nation's main ports. The exercises are to continue tomorrow, with the PLA announcing sea and air space restrictions for five zones around Taiwan for 10 hours starting from 8:30am. The ministry today released images showing a Chinese J-16 fighter jet tracked by a F-16V Block 20 jet and the
City buses in Taipei and New Taipei City, as well as the Taipei MRT, would on Saturday begin accepting QR code payments from five electronic payment providers, the Taipei Department of Transportation said yesterday. The new option would allow passengers to use the “transportation QR code” feature from EasyWallet, iPass Money, iCash Pay, Jkopay or PXPay Plus. Passengers should open their preferred electronic payment app, select the “transportation code” — not the regular payment code — unlock it, and scan the code at ticket readers or gates, General Planning Division Director-General Liu Kuo-chu (劉國著) said. People should move through the
RSS