US biotechnology company Moderna, one of the two leading makers of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19, on Thursday officially established a subsidiary in Taiwan to expand its domestic presence, the company said in a statement.
Moderna hopes that the new subsidiary would enhance cooperation between the company and local healthcare experts to bring to Taiwanese future mRNA-based therapeutics, Moderna senior vice president Patrick Bergstedt was quoted as saying in the statement.
Bergstedt was upbeat on the prospects for cooperation, saying that Taiwan is known for its state-of-the-art healthcare system, diverse pool of industrial and scientific talent, research and development institutions and innovative biotechnology capabilities, it said.
Photo: CNA
Joyce Lee (李宜真), the subsidiary’s general manager, told reporters that the company is looking forward to collaborating with the private and public sectors and academia in Taiwan.
MRNA-based therapeutics offer promising innovative approaches to treat cancer, infectious diseases, cardiovascular and autoimmune diseases, and rare diseases, and the company is looking forward to introducing new medications to Taiwan, Lee said.
Earlier this year, Moderna announced a plan to set up subsidiaries in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore to help it continue to scale up manufacturing and distribution of its COVID-19 vaccine and future mRNA-based therapeutics in Asia.
In other news, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) might loosen restrictions on the seven-day self-health management period for confirmed cases, said Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞), deputy head of the CECC’s medical response division.
With the proposed change, self-health management would end if a person returns a negative rapid test result, as opposed to the current standard requiring a negative polymerase chain reaction test, Lo said.
Separately, Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang (王必勝), who heads the CECC, said that the Executive Yuan might disband the CECC before June 30 next year, when the Special Act for Prevention, Relief and Revitalization Measures for Severe Pneumonia with Novel Pathogens (嚴重特殊傳染性肺炎防治及紓困振興特別條例) expires.
Conditions would have to be met for the CECC to disband earlier than the law states, Wang said.
The conditions are: a fall in the number cases and symptom severity; absence of new dangerous variants; the evolution of COVID-19 into a flu-like disease; and an end to the need for coordinated governmental response, he said.
The CECC yesterday reported 43,505 new infections and 50 deaths from the disease.
The deceased ranged in age from their 40s to their 90s, and 46 of them had underlying health issues, the CECC said.
Twenty-one of them were not vaccinated against COVID-19, while five had received one dose of a vaccine, eight had gotten two shots and 15 had received three doses, the CECC said.
The 50 new deaths brought the total in Taiwan to 11,053 since the pandemic began, it said.
Additional reporting by Wu Liang-yi
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