Coronavirus vaccine made locally by Medigen has been given emergency-use approval by Taiwan’s government, reports AFP. This came after experts said that early data suggested it was similarly effective to AstraZeneca’s jabs. This will give a boost to the island vaccination programme that struggled to secure enough vaccines for its 23 million people.

Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp’s vaccine — known officially as MVC-COV1901 — has yet to finish clinical trials although it published promising phase-two data last month.

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According to Taiwan’s health ministry, a panel of experts approved its use on Sunday. It will administered to the public as early as August.

No details were given of its efficacy rate but the health ministry said Medigen’s antibody effect was “no worse than the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine jabs that the public have received”.

Health minister Chen Shih-chung said there were no major safety concerns, adding “it will take some time to expand production capacity” but said the first small supplies for the public could be expected in August.

Medigen’s jab is a “subunit vaccine” and it teaches the body’s immune system to recognise the spike protein that the coronavirus uses to invade cells. It has been approved for people over 20 years old and will be given in two shots.

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The health ministry has asked the pharma company to to submit monthly safety monitoring reports and an effectiveness report within a year.

Taiwan’s government has signed contracts to purchase five million doses of the Medigen vaccine and the same amount from another local maker, United Biomedical, which has yet to receive emergency authorisation.

Last year, Taiwan was lauded for having one of the best coronavirus responses in the world. But, in May, an outbreak began among airline pilots and it led to widespread community transmission with the island. It has now recording nearly 800 deaths and some 15,000 infections.

It had only received 726,000 vaccine doses before the United States and Japan recently donated 2.5 million and 3.37 million doses, respectively. Taipei has accused Beijing of hampering its plans to acquire Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech, until two Taiwanese tech giants reached an agreement with its Shanghai-based distributor.

Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, the world’s largest contract microchip maker, announced last week that they would each donate 5 million vaccines doses to the government, after signing a deal with Fosun Pharma. But it will still need more jabs to fully inoculate its 23 million people.