Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) yesterday reported higher neutralizing antibody levels in people who were given its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster after two AstraZeneca doses, the company said.
In a trial of 200 participants who received Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine, neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 grew by 5.7 times one month after being administered, Taoyuan General Hospital said.
Medigen said that the results have been submitted to medRxiv, an online platform for researchers to share complete but unpublished papers.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Another trial conducted by National Taiwan University Hospital showed that among 45 participants who received three doses of the Medigen vaccine, the level of neutralizing antibodies against the Omicron variant gradually fell, similar to those who received three doses of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines such as those made by Pfizer-BionNTech and Moderna Inc.
“This result indicates that our vaccine, as a booster shot, provided protection against the Omicron variant to some degree,” Medigen said.
The company said that people who have received adenovirus-based vaccines, such as the one made by AstraZeneca, or mRNA-based vaccines could consider taking the Medigen vaccine as a third shot given its safety profile, mild side effects and immunogenicity.
Medigen’s vaccine is a protein subunit vaccine, developed by recombinant technology. It comprises the recombinant spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 as the antigen to help a person’s body recognize the virus if a person becomes infected.
The company said that it would recruit 960 participants for a “mix-and-match” clinical trial in which it plans to test the safety and immunogenicity of different combinations of multiple brands of COVID-19 vaccines.
Medigen has received a subsidy of US$2.3 million from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international foundation, to conduct the trial.
The trial is to be carried out in four hospitals, and recruitment of participants has begun, it said.
As of Sunday, 1.51 million people had received two doses of Medigen’s vaccine, accounting for four percent of 36.17 million who had received two COVID-19 shots, while 112,838 people had chosen the vaccine as booster shot, Centers for Disease Control data showed.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS