Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) expects by the end of this month to receive a US$1.5 million deposit from Malaysia-based Metronic Global Bhd for up to 3 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine next year, the company said in a regulatory filing yesterday.
Medigen on Nov. 13 signed a memorandum of understanding with the Malaysian firm to supply 1 million to 3 million doses of its vaccine at a price below US$50 each, the filing showed.
Metronic is expected to pay the deposit within two weeks of the memorandum taking effect, with terms of the projected deal such as the number of doses that Metronic would purchase, the price and the distribution date still to be discussed, Medigen said.
Photo: CNA
The two firms plan to sign a formal distribution agreement by February.
Medigen would have to obtain an emergency use authorization from the government before selling its vaccine to Metronic, the company said, adding that it would also need to comply with Malaysian regulations.
The deal is the first installment from a foreign entity interested in buying Medigen’s projected COVID-19 vaccine.
“As many countries are interested in our vaccine, we ask them to pay deposits before entering negotiations,” Medigen spokesman Leo Lee (李思賢) said.
The company is considering seeking partners to market its vaccine in Vietnam, where the company would conduct the phase 2 clinical trial for its vaccine, Lee said.
Medigen also announced that it has been granted a NT$40 million (US$1.39 million) subsidy from the Ministry of Economic Affairs for the development of the vaccine.
The company was last month granted a NT$470 million subsidy from the Ministry of Health and Welfare.
The firm is positive about its vaccine candidate, as laboratory tests at the US National Institutes of Health last month showed promising results, Medigen CEO Charles Chen (陳燦堅) told an investors’ conference in Taipei on Tuesday.
Scientists at the US lab developed the stabilized COVID-19 spike immunogen, S-2P, which Moderna Inc encoded for its vaccine using messenger RNA technology, while Medigen is developing its vaccine based on S-2P utilizing recombinant spike protein technology.
Moderna on Monday last week announced that its vaccine was 94.5 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infections based on its phase 3 study.
The US laboratory tested Medigen’s vaccine on rhesus monkeys, finding that their COVID-19 antibody levels five weeks after inoculation were higher than those of monkeys administered mRNA-based vaccines, Chen said.
“The results indicate that our vaccine might be as effective as the mRNA-based vaccines, or even better,” Chen said.
However, it is difficult for the company to assess its vaccine’s effectiveness before it has conducted a large-scale clinical trial, Chen said.
Medigen plans to finish its phase 1 trial next month, he said, adding that the firm would then apply to the Food and Drug Administration and the Vietnamese regulator to conduct the phase 2 trial.
The phase 2 trial is expected to enroll 3,700 participants in Taiwan and Vietnam, and would be finished within three months, he added.
FALLING BEHIND: Samsung shares have declined more than 20 percent this year, as the world’s largest chipmaker struggles in key markets and plays catch-up to rival SK Hynix Samsung Electronics Co is laying off workers in Southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand as part of a plan to reduce its global headcount by thousands of jobs, sources familiar with the situation said. The layoffs could affect about 10 percent of its workforces in those markets, although the numbers for each subsidiary might vary, said one of the sources, who asked not to be named because the matter is private. Job cuts are planned for other overseas subsidiaries and could reach 10 percent in certain markets, the source said. The South Korean company has about 147,000 in staff overseas, more than half
TECH PARTNERSHIP: The deal with Arizona-based Amkor would provide TSMC with advanced packing and test capacities, a requirement to serve US customers Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is collaborating with Amkor Technology Inc to provide local advanced packaging and test capacities in Arizona to address customer requirements for geographical flexibility in chip manufacturing. As part of the agreement, TSMC, the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, would contract turnkey advanced packaging and test services from Amkor at their planned facility in Peoria, Arizona, a joint statement released yesterday said. TSMC would leverage these services to support its customers, particularly those using TSMC’s advanced wafer fabrication facilities in Phoenix, Arizona, it said. The companies would jointly define the specific packaging technologies, such as TSMC’s Integrated
An Indian factory producing iPhone components resumed work yesterday after a fire that halted production — the third blaze to disrupt Apple Inc’s local supply chain since the start of last year. Local industrial behemoth Tata Group’s plant in Tamil Nadu, which was shut down by the unexplained fire on Saturday, is a key linchpin of Apple’s nascent supply chain in the country. A spokesperson for subsidiary Tata Electronics Pvt yesterday said that the company would restart work in “many areas of the facility today.” “We’ve been working diligently since Saturday to support our team and to identify the cause of the fire,”
Sales RecORD: Hon Hai’s consolidated sales rose by about 20 percent last quarter, while Largan, another Apple supplier, saw quarterly sales increase by 17 percent IPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) on Saturday reported its highest-ever quarterly sales for the third quarter on the back of solid global demand for artificial intelligence (AI) servers. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團) globally, said it posted NT$1.85 trillion (US$57.93 billion) in consolidated sales in the July-to-September quarter, up 19.46 percent from the previous quarter and up 20.15 percent from a year earlier. The figure beat the previous third-quarter high of NT$1.74 trillion recorded in 2022, company data showed. Due to rising demand for AI, Hon Hai said its cloud and networking division enjoyed strong sales
RSS