The government had commissioned a local company to conduct trials for a domestic COVID-19 vaccine before its parent firm merged with a Shanghai-based company, Minister of Health and Welfare Hsueh Jui-yuan (薛瑞元) said on Wednesday.
Choice Pharma Taiwan was last year chosen by the Ministry of Health and Welfare to conduct phase 2 clinical trials for Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine. However, it was later revealed that Choice Pharma’s parent firm had merged with a Chinese company, raising concerns over Chinese involvement in the trials.
Taiwan People’s Party Legislator Chiu Chen-yuan (邱臣遠) during a legislative hearing on Monday said that Choice Pharma’s parent company, US-based Clinipace, on April 28 last year merged with Shanghai-based dMed Biopharmaceutical under a new entity that was later renamed Caidya.
Photo: Tsai Szu-pei, Taipei Times
The merger took place before the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) signed a deal with Medigen on May 28 last year to purchase its COVID-19 vaccine, Chiu said.
However, Hsueh on Wednesday told reporters that Choice Pharma Taiwan was still registered in Taiwan as a subsidiary of Clinipace when the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tasked it with conducting the trials.
The Medigen vaccine passed phase 2 trials in June last year and obtained emergency use authorization.
It was not until this month that Caidya made the merger known, Hsueh said.
He denied that Clinipace and dMed had already merged when the CECC signed the purchase agreement with Medigen in May last year.
According to Caidya’s Web site, Clinipace and dMed merged in April last year under the name dMed Clinipace, and changed their brand name to Caidya early this month.
Hsueh said the merger did not affect Choice Pharma Taiwan, which is still registered in Taiwan as a subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Choice Pharma.
The ministry was not aware of changes to the structure of Choice Pharma’s parent firm, as it was interested in whether the firm was registered in Taiwan, whether the trials followed due procedure and whether trial data had been duly preserved, he said.
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