Adimmune Corp (國光生技) on Thursday said it is developing a COVID-19 vaccine in cooperation with the National Health Research Institutes, and plans to run animal tests in the second quarter if its research proceeds smoothly.
The Taichung-based firm has been working to develop the vaccine utilizing its recombinant protein technology since acquiring a genetic sequence from the US Centers for Disease Control last month, Adimmune spokesman Pan Fei (潘飛) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
As the virus’ sequence reportedly evolves and appears different in separate regions, the company is attempting to determine whether the difference is considerable enough to affect the efficacy of a vaccine, Pan said.
“Though the novel coronavirus’ genetic sequence is 70 percent similar to that of the SARS virus, it is still not easy to make the vaccine,” he said.
Earlier this month National Taiwan University managed to isolate the virus strain of COVID-19, and Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) on Monday said that it expects to conduct clinical tests for its vaccine in the second half of this year.
Adimmune would not use the isolated virus strain during its development to protect the safety of its research team, Pan said, adding that it is hard to forecast when it would enter the human trial stage
The Central Epidemic Command Center on Thursday said that an infected Taiwanese businessman returning from Zhejiang Province in China last month had antibodies against the virus in his blood.
However, Adimmune said that those antibodies would not help in the development of vaccines.
“Antibodies are created by patients’ immune systems. However, our goal is to produce an antigen against the virus, which is different,” Pan said.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
For the second year in a row, a Brazilian movie has wowed international audiences and critics, securing multiple Oscar nominations and drawing fresh interest in the Latin American giant’s film industry. Experts say the success of The Secret Agent, which has won four Oscar nominations, a year after I Am Still Here won Brazil its first Oscar, is no fluke, with a bit of a push from the country’s political climate. “This is neither a coincidence nor a miracle. It is the result of a lot of work, consistent policies, and, of course, talent,” Ilda Santiago, director of the Rio International Film
RSS