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Medigen said that the results have been submitted to medRxiv, an online platform for researchers to share complete but unpublished papers.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.
ELECTRONICS BOOST: A predicted surge in exports would likely be driven by ICT products, exports of which have soared 84.7 percent from a year earlier, DBS said DBS Bank Ltd (星展銀行) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast for Taiwan this year to 4 percent from 3 percent, citing robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI)-related exports and accelerated shipment activity, which are expected to offset potential headwinds from US tariffs. “Our GDP growth forecast for 2025 is revised up to 4 percent from 3 percent to reflect front-loaded exports and strong AI demand,” Singapore-based DBS senior economist Ma Tieying (馬鐵英) said in an online briefing. Taiwan’s second-quarter performance beat expectations, with GDP growth likely surpassing 5 percent, driven by a 34.1 percent year-on-year increase in exports, Ma said, citing government
UNIFYING OPPOSITION: Numerous companies have registered complaints over the potential levies, bringing together rival automakers in voicing their reservations US President Donald Trump is readying plans for industry-specific tariffs to kick in alongside his country-by-country duties in two weeks, ramping up his push to reshape the US’ standing in the global trading system by penalizing purchases from abroad. Administration officials could release details of Trump’s planned 50 percent duty on copper in the days before they are set to take effect on Friday next week, a person familiar with the matter said. That is the same date Trump’s “reciprocal” levies on products from more than 100 nations are slated to begin. Trump on Tuesday said that he is likely to impose tariffs
HELPING HAND: Approving the sale of H20s could give China the edge it needs to capture market share and become the global standard, a US representative said The US President Donald Trump administration’s decision allowing Nvidia Corp to resume shipments of its H20 artificial intelligence (AI) chips to China risks bolstering Beijing’s military capabilities and expanding its capacity to compete with the US, the head of the US House Select Committee on Strategic Competition Between the United States and the Chinese Communist Party said. “The H20, which is a cost-effective and powerful AI inference chip, far surpasses China’s indigenous capability and would therefore provide a substantial increase to China’s AI development,” committee chairman John Moolenaar, a Michigan Republican, said on Friday in a letter to US Secretary of
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) market value closed above US$1 trillion for the first time in Taipei last week, with a raised sales forecast driven by robust artificial intelligence (AI) demand. TSMC saw its Taiwanese shares climb to a record high on Friday, a near 50 percent rise from an April low. That has made it the first Asian stock worth more than US$1 trillion, since PetroChina Co (中國石油天然氣) briefly reached the milestone in 2007. As investors turned calm after their aggressive buying on Friday, amid optimism over the chipmaker’s business outlook, TSMC lost 0.43 percent to close at NT$1,150