US biotechnology company Moderna Inc, one of the two leading makers of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, on Tuesday announced that it would establish four subsidiaries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore to support delivery of its vaccines and therapeutics.
The subsidiary in Taiwan is expected to be set up by the end of this year, Moderna told Chinese-language media, adding that it would recruit local talent and collaborate with local hospitals on clinical trials.
Moderna has signed a contract with Taiwan to offer 20 million COVID-19 vaccine and booster doses this year, and another 15 million next year, the company said in a statement.
Photo: Reuters
In Taiwan, its COVID-19 vaccine has been approved for people aged 18 or older, while its booster shots can be given to those who had their second dose five months prior, it said.
Moderna provides Taiwan with its mRNA-1273 vaccine, which targets variants of SARS-CoV-2, and it is developing a next-generation vaccine that it expects to launch in the second half of this year, pending regulatory approval, Moderna senior vice president Patrick Bergstedt said in an interview with the Chinese-language United Daily News.
“This is why we set up a subsidiary in Taiwan — we hope to cooperate with local hospitals and regulators directly so that we could provide our vaccine,” United Daily News quoted Bergstedt as saying.
More studies are required to determine whether booster shots should be given once every six months or once a year, he said.
Moderna did not say whether it would consider manufacturing its COVID-19 vaccine in Taiwan, but the Central News Agency (CNA) yesterday reported that the government is attempting to arrange a technology transfer for the vaccine.
To facilitate a transfer, the government plans to set up a new company in which the National Development Fund would hold a stake of less than 49 percent and the remaining shares would belong to private companies, CNA reported.
South Korea’s Samsung Biologics Co has since May last year been assigned the fill and finish manufacturing task for Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccines, corporate data showed.
Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) last year told lawmakers that the US is protective of its mRNA technology, so there would be a higher chance of Taiwan participating in the back-end manufacturing processes, such as fill and finish — the process of filling vials with vaccine and finishing the process of packaging the medicine — than in core manufacturing.
However, Taiwan would strive to transfer the technology, he said.
Asked whether Moderna’s decision to set up a branch in Taiwan could lead to the company’s vaccines being produced in Taiwan or other types of cooperation, Chen yesterday said that the ministry does not know the company’s development plans, but welcomes it to Taiwan and would not exclude the possibility of further cooperation.
Moderna said that the addition of the four subsidiaries comes as it continues to scale up the manufacturing and distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine, and future mRNA vaccines and therapeutics.
The Asia-Pacific region represents an integral part of Moderna’s business, with established subsidiaries in Australia, South Korea and Japan, it said.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia
RESILIENCE: Deepening bilateral cooperation would extend the peace sustained over the 45 years since the Taiwan Relations Act, Greene said Taiwan-US relations are built on deep economic ties and shared values, American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Director Raymond Greene said yesterday, adding that strengthening supply chain security in critical industries, enhancing societal resilience through cooperation and deepening partnerships are key to ensuring peace and stability for Taiwan in the years ahead. Greene made the remarks at the National Security Youth Forum, organized by National Taiwan University’s National Security and Strategy Studies Institution in Taipei. In his address in Mandarin Chinese, Greene said the Taiwan-US relationship is built on deep economic ties and shared interests, and grows stronger through the enduring friendship between
GAINING STEAM: The scheme initially failed to gather much attention, with only 188 cards issued in its first year, but gained popularity amid the COVID-19 pandemic Applications for the Employment Gold Card have increased in the past few years, with the card having been issued to a total of 13,191 people from 101 countries since its introduction in 2018, the National Development Council (NDC) said yesterday. Those who have received the card have included celebrities, such as former NBA star Dwight Howard and Australian-South Korean cheerleader Dahye Lee, the NDC said. The four-in-one Employment Gold Card combines a work permit, resident visa, Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) and re-entry permit. It was first introduced in February 2018 through the Act Governing Recruitment and Employment of Foreign Professionals (外國專業人才延攬及雇用法),
The Ministry of Transportation and Communications yesterday said that it would redesign the written portion of the driver’s license exam to make it more rigorous. “We hope that the exam can assess drivers’ understanding of traffic rules, particularly those who take the driver’s license test for the first time. In the past, drivers only needed to cram a book of test questions to pass the written exam,” Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) told a news conference at the Taoyuan Motor Vehicle Office. “In the future, they would not be able to pass the test unless they study traffic regulations
EUROPEAN TARGETS: The planned Munich center would support TSMC’s European customers to design high-performance, energy-efficient chips, an executive said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday said that it plans to launch a new research-and-development (R&D) center in Munich, Germany, next quarter to assist customers with chip design. TSMC Europe president Paul de Bot made the announcement during a technology symposium in Amsterdam on Tuesday, the chipmaker said. The new Munich center would be the firm’s first chip designing center in Europe, it said. The chipmaker has set up a major R&D center at its base of operations in Hsinchu and plans to create a new one in the US to provide services for major US customers,
RSS