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Taiwan rejects Covid-19 vaccine from UBI Pharma in blow to self-sufficiency goal
- Second home-grown candidate does not trigger enough antibodies, regulator says
- Phase 3 testing will go ahead in India and Taiwan, according to head of clinical trials
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Taiwan has had a setback in its drive for coronavirus vaccine self-sufficiency, with one of its home-grown jabs failing to meet the standard for emergency use.
The island’s regulator rejected UBI Pharma’s application for emergency use of its vaccine candidate on Monday, saying interim data from phase 2 clinical trials showed it did not trigger enough antibodies. Those produced did not reach the level of the AstraZeneca jab – the standard set by the island for emergency use approval before efficacy data is available for phase 3 trials.
Seventeen of 21 experts in a panel advising the government voted against granting emergency use.
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Taiwan – home to 23.5 million people – is keen to produce its own vaccines after it struggled to secure enough doses during its worst outbreak of the pandemic earlier this year. The outbreak, which began in April, is now under control and Taiwan has received supplies of mainly AstraZeneca and Moderna vaccines, including through the World Health Organization-backed Covax Facility.
As of Saturday, some 9.7 million doses had been administered on the island, according to the Taiwan Centres for Disease Control.
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The government had planned to buy 5 million doses of the UBI vaccine.
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