Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) is planning to develop its next-generation COVID-19 vaccine by using a sequence of the Beta variant of SARS-CoV-2, which was first detected in South Africa, the company said in a statement on Thursday.
The company’s animal tests showed that a booster shot built on the Beta variant prompted immunity in hamsters against all variants of the virus, it said.
Medigen is seeking to conduct human trials for the vaccine in Taiwan, but it would not necessarily need to conduct phase 1 clinical trials, the earliest stage involving human testing, company spokesman Leo Lee (李思賢) told the Taipei Times by telephone on Friday.
Photo: Billy H.C. Kwok, Bloomberg
The drugmaker would consult with the local drug regulator regarding the protocol for the next round of clinical trials, Lee said.
Medigen in May conducted research on whether a third dose of its current vaccine would bolster immunity against the original SARS-CoV-2 virus, the company said.
It administered the doses to 45 participants six months after they received the first two shots, the firm said.
In separate trials on hamsters, the drugmaker tested their immune response to other major variants after receiving three doses, it said.
Medigen said it split the research into five sub-trials: In the first, it gave hamsters two shots developed on the original virus; in the second, it gave them two shots developed on the Beta variant; in the third, it gave “bivalent” vaccines containing both strains; in the fourth, it gave three shots developed on the original virus; and in the fifth, it gave two shots developed on the original virus and an additional shot developed on the Beta variant.
Hamsters in all five groups developed antibodies, while those given a third shot, whether based on the original virus or the Beta variant, had higher antibody levels than those that received only two shots, the company said.
Hamsters that were given two shots developed on the original virus and a third shot based on the Beta variant developed the highest antibody levels, regardless of whether they were infected with the Alpha, Beta, Gamma or Delta variants, the company said.
Viral loads in the lungs and nasal cavities of the hamsters of that group reduced significantly eight weeks after receiving the third shot, it added.
Medigen shares gained 1.65 percent to NT$278 in Taipei trading on Friday.
The stock price has risen 169.9 percent so far this year, Taipei Exchange data showed.
DECOUPLING? In a sign of deeper US-China technology decoupling, Apple has held initial talks about using Baidu’s generative AI technology in its iPhones, the Wall Street Journal said China has introduced guidelines to phase out US microprocessors from Intel Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) from government PCs and servers, the Financial Times reported yesterday. The procurement guidance also seeks to sideline Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating system and foreign-made database software in favor of domestic options, the report said. Chinese officials have begun following the guidelines, which were unveiled in December last year, the report said. They order government agencies above the township level to include criteria requiring “safe and reliable” processors and operating systems when making purchases, the newspaper said. The US has been aiming to boost domestic semiconductor
Nvidia Corp earned its US$2.2 trillion market cap by producing artificial intelligence (AI) chips that have become the lifeblood powering the new era of generative AI developers from start-ups to Microsoft Corp, OpenAI and Google parent Alphabet Inc. Almost as important to its hardware is the company’s nearly 20 years’ worth of computer code, which helps make competition with the company nearly impossible. More than 4 million global developers rely on Nvidia’s CUDA software platform to build AI and other apps. Now a coalition of tech companies that includes Qualcomm Inc, Google and Intel Corp plans to loosen Nvidia’s chokehold by going
ENERGY IMPACT: The electricity rate hike is expected to add about NT$4 billion to TSMC’s electricity bill a year and cut its annual earnings per share by about NT$0.154 Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has left its long-term gross margin target unchanged despite the government deciding on Friday to raise electricity rates. One of the heaviest power consuming manufacturers in Taiwan, TSMC said it always respects the government’s energy policy and would continue to operate its fabs by making efforts in energy conservation. The chipmaker said it has left a long-term goal of more than 53 percent in gross margin unchanged. The Ministry of Economic Affairs concluded a power rate evaluation meeting on Friday, announcing electricity tariffs would go up by 11 percent on average to about NT$3.4518 per kilowatt-hour (kWh)
OPENING ADDRESS: The CEO is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing and artificial intelligence at the trade show’s opening on June 3, TAITRA said Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) chairperson and chief executive officer Lisa Su (蘇姿丰) is to deliver the opening keynote speech at Computex Taipei this year, the event’s organizer said in a statement yesterday. Su is to give a speech on the future of high-performance computing (HPC) in the artificial intelligence (AI) era to open Computex, one of the world’s largest computer and technology trade events, at 9:30am on June 3, the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) said. Su is to explore how AMD and the company’s strategic technology partners are pushing the limits of AI and HPC, from data centers to