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.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last