Chunghwa Chemical Synthesis & Biotech Co Ltd (CCSB, 中化合成生技) yesterday said that it is ready to produce remdesivir, an experimental antiviral drug being studied as a treatment for COVID-19, if the government determines that it is safe and effective against the novel coronavirus that causes the disease.
The company earlier this week completed the synthesis of 4.73g of remdesivir with a purity of 99.72 percent.
“We spent about two weeks replicating the drug. The synthesis part was not time-consuming, but we spent some time waiting for ingredients from abroad,” CCSB spokesman Eason Wang (王冠傑) told the Taipei Times by telephone.
The company purchased the processed ingredients from overseas, as it lacks low-temperature equipment to proceed with synthesis, he said.
“As some chemical reactions have to take place at a very low temperature — about minus-78°C — when combining the compounds to make remdesivir, a special device is necessary,” Wang said, adding that the firm is considering buying such equipment to enable full production.
CCSB, a manufacturer of active pharmaceutical ingredients, was the latest local institution or company to succeed in replicating the experimental drug after Academia Sinica and Formosa Laboratories Inc (台耀化學).
Remdesivir, developed by US-based Gilead Sciences Inc, has shown promising results in fighting the novel coronavirus in an early analysis of overseas studies, Wang said.
Taiwan is also conducting clinical trials to test the drug’s efficacy, he said.
As no definitive conclusion on whether remdesivir is an effective treatment for COVID-19 has been made and Gilead has a patent for the drug, CCSB does not plan to mass-produce it, unless the government makes it compulsory for local companies to produce such drugs, Wang said.
With a stable supply of ingredients from overseas, CCSB could manufacture 30kg of remdesivir within 12 weeks, which should be enough to treat 30,000 patients, who would each need about 1.1g, he said.
“As the spread of COVID-19 seems to have abated in Taiwan,” with the Central Epidemic Command Center yesterday reporting zero new cases for the third time this week, “we do not expect high demand for the drug domestically,” Wang said.
However, local regulators might consider allowing companies to produce the drug to help other nations deal with escalating outbreaks of the disease, as the government earlier this month donated masks to affected countries, he said.
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