Enimmune Corp (安特羅生技) has obtained marketing approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for its EnVAX-A71 vaccine for enterovirus 71 (EV-71), becoming the nation’s first enterovirus vaccine completely made in Taiwan, it said yesterday.
After spending 13 years and NT$1.5 billion (US$49.77 million) on the research and development of the vaccine, Enimmune plans to start manufacturing and marketing it by the end of March, the company said in a statement, without disclosing customer order figures.
“It is possible that the vaccine would not be included in a national vaccination program initially, and consumers would need to pay for it themselves,” parent company Adimmune Corp (國光生技) told the Taipei Times yesterday.
Photo courtesy of Adimmune Corp
“However, we are working with the government, and hope that this vaccine could be included in a national vaccination program for children, as EV-71 is a common pathogen that causes polio-like syndrome and can lead to severe sickness,” Adimmune said.
As the vaccine would be administered to children younger than five and each child would need to have two shots, the total demand for the vaccine in Taiwan is estimated at 300,000 doses per year, the company said.
EnVAX-A71 is designed to act against genotype B4 of EV-71, which is widespread in Taiwan.
Enimmune has signed a memorandum of understanding with a Vietnamese state-run vaccine company to collaborate on EnVAX-A71 and is to complete a phase-three human test of the vaccine in the country in the near term.
In the long term, the company aims to enter the Southeast Asian market where demand for an enterovirus vaccine could exceed 20 million doses, it said, adding that it also plans to enter the Chinese market.
Enimmune’s revenue grew 72 percent year-on-year to NT$188 million last year, while Adimmune’s revenue grew 37 percent to NT$2.25 billion, companies data showed.
Local rival Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp (高端疫苗) is also developing an enterovirus vaccine in Taiwan, but has not yet obtained marketing approval after submitting an application in 2021.
The Investment Commission yesterday approved a Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) application to invest an additional US$3.5 billion in its Arizona subsidiary to manufactured advanced chips. The world’s largest contract chipmaker’s board of directors last month approved the funding project after TSMC started moving manufacturing equipment into the fab in December last year in preparation for the production of 4-nanometer chips next year. TSMC said it has also commenced the second phase of facility construction in Arizona. The second fab is to produce semiconductors using 3-nanometer technology in 2026. Altogether, TSMC plans to spend US$40 billion on the Arizona fabs, doubling its
KEY SECTOR: Taiwan’s new chip legislation is insufficient, and a more strategic ‘chip act’ that covers the whole semiconductor ecosystem is needed, MediaTek’s chairman said MediaTek Inc (聯發科) chairman Rick Tsai (蔡明介) yesterday urged the government to formulate a state semiconductor strategy and comprehensive “chip act” that includes local chip designers and smaller-scale semiconductor companies, as they are facing intensifying competition from China. The government is playing an increasingly important role in safeguarding the local semiconductor industry’s competitiveness, given that the US, the EU and Japan are offering hefty subsidies and significant tax incentives to build semiconductor capacity domestically, as they have realized the strategic importance of semiconductors, Tsai said. To implement such a program, the government should take steps to finance a “chip act,” Tsai said
Microsoft Corp has threatened to cut off access to its Internet search data, which it licenses to rival search engines, if they do not stop using it as the basis for their own artificial intelligence (AI) chat products, people familiar with the dispute have said. The software maker licenses the data in its Bing search index — a map of the Internet that can be quickly scanned in real time — to other companies that offer Web search, such as Apollo Global Management Inc’s Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Last month, Microsoft integrated a cousin of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chat technology, into Bing. Rivals
MOUNTING PRESSURE: Although bank failures in the US and Europe would not cause systemic risks, it would dampen consumers’ willingness to spend, GlobalWafers said GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s third-largest silicon wafer supplier, yesterday said that the financial turmoil in the US and Europe has dimmed the outlook for chip demand in the second half of this year, as growing economic uncertainty could dampen consumer spending. The Hsinchu-based wafer manufacturer said it is seeing greater pressure from economic uncertainty on the industry’s recovery, as customers would have not expected Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank and a tier-one bank like Credit Suisse Group SA to collapse suddenly. Although the failures are unlikely to cause systemic risks, consumers would be cautious of spending on non-essential items, such