The Central Epidemic Command Center’s (CECC) plan to procure the oral antiviral drug molnupiravir remains unchanged, even though a final analysis of clinical tests showed that the drug was less effective against COVID-19 than hoped for, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the CECC, said on Saturday.
Molnupiravir reduced the risk of hospitalization and death among high-risk cases by 30 percent, Chen said, citing drugmaker Merck’s final analysis of data from 1,433 trial participants.
Initial data released last month showed an efficacy of about 50 percent.
The CECC has a ordered the drug from the US company and does not intend to change its plans, Chen said.
Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥), who is the CECC’s spokesman, on Nov. 10 said that the center would purchase molnupiravir for the treatment of about 10,000 cases and has signed a letter of intent with Merck, which developed the drug in cooperation with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics.
Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Director-General Wu Shou-mei (吳秀梅) on Saturday said that her agency would complete the review of Merck’s emergency use authorization application for molnupiravir by the middle of next month.
The drugmaker filed the application earlier this month, she said.
US drug regulators are still reviewing a similar application
Chang Gung University Research Center for Emerging Viral Infections director Shih Shin-ru (施信如) said he hopes that the FDA would grant approval to the drug so that it could be imported by the end of the year.
As reports of vaccine breakthrough infections in other countries increase, the drug might play an important role in efforts to curb the spread of the virus, Shih said.
For people who are not recommended to get vaccinated against COVID-19 due to other health conditions, the drug might reduce the risk of developing severe symptoms in the case of an infection, she said.
Seperately, Chuang said that the CECC is in talks with Pfizer about purchasing its experimental COVID-19 drug Paxlovid, adding that no deal has been reached.
The FDA said it received Pfizer’s emergency use authorization application for Paxlovid this week.
However, the agency has asked the drugmaker to submit additional data before it can begin reviewing the application, it said.
Johanne Liou (劉喬安), a Taiwanese woman who shot to unwanted fame during the Sunflower movement protests in 2014, was arrested in Boston last month amid US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigrants, the Criminal Investigation Bureau (CIB) said yesterday. The arrest of Liou was first made public on the official Web site of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Tuesday. ICE said Liou was apprehended for overstaying her visa. The Boston Field Office’s Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) had arrested Liou, a “fugitive, criminal alien wanted for embezzlement, fraud and drug crimes in Taiwan,” ICE said. Liou was taken into custody
The US-Japan joint statement released on Friday not mentioning the “one China” policy might be a sign that US President Donald Trump intends to decouple US-China relations from Taiwan, a Taiwanese academic said. Following Trump’s meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba on Friday, the US and Japan issued a joint statement where they reaffirmed the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait and support for Taiwan’s meaningful participation in international organizations. Trump has not personally brought up the “one China” policy in more than a year, National Taiwan University Department of Political Science Associate Professor Chen Shih-min (陳世民)
‘NEVER!’ Taiwan FactCheck Center said it had only received donations from the Open Society Foundations, which supports nonprofits that promote democratic values Taiwan FactCheck Center (TFC) has never received any donation from the US Agency for International Development (USAID), a cofounder of the organization wrote on his Facebook page on Sunday. The Taipei-based organization was established in 2018 by Taiwan Media Watch Foundation and the Association of Quality Journalism to monitor and verify news and information accuracy. It was officially registered as a foundation in 2021. National Chung Cheng University communications professor Lo Shih-hung (羅世宏), a cofounder and chairman of TFC, was responding to online rumors that the TFC receives funding from the US government’s humanitarian assistance agency via the Open Society Foundations (OSF),
ANNUAL LIGHT SHOW: The lanterns are exhibited near Taoyuan’s high-speed rail station and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the airport MRT line More than 400 lanterns are to be on display at the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival, which officially starts in Taoyuan today. The city is hosting the festival for the second time — the first time was in 2016. The Tourism Administration held a rehearsal of the festival last night. Chunghwa Telecom donated the main lantern of the festival to the Taoyuan City Government. The lanterns are exhibited in two main areas: near the high-speed rail (HSR) station in Taoyuan, which is at the A18 station of the Taoyuan Airport MRT, and around the Taoyuan Sports Park Station of the MRT