TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The World Health Organization (WHO) is including Taiwan's domestic COVID-19 vaccine developed by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp. (高端疫苗, MVC) in its Phase III trials and has already tested the shot on human subjects prior to the trials to confirm its safety and ability to provide an immune response.
On Wednesday (Oct. 20), a consent form appeared on the WHO website listing four latest COVID vaccine candidates in the organization's Solidarity trial. The four candidates listed include Medigen's MVC-COV1901, Arcturus' ARCT-021, Codagenix's COVI-VAC, and Inovio's INO-4800, the latter three of which are developed by American companies.
According to the ISRCTN Registry, the Solidarity trial for the COVID-19 candidates is sponsored, run, and funded by the WHO. The multi-country trial is recruiting participants from Jan. 2021 to Jan. 2022 and will be published on Jan. 7, 2022.
Taiwan's Medigen among four vaccines listed on consent form. (WHO screenshot)
To be eligible, participants must be at least 16 years of age and have lived in a designated country for a minimum of six months. Volunteers will be randomly administered the vaccine or a placebo and will be contacted weekly for 52 weeks to see if there are any symptoms or adverse reactions, with testing administered if COVID-19 is suspected.
Based on the consent form, Taiwan's MVC-COV1901 is composed of a combination of spike proteins and adjuvant. Arcturus' ARCT-021 is an mRNA vaccine, Inovio's INO-4800 is a DNA vaccine, and Codagenix's COVI-VAC is based on a live attenuated virus.
The organization indicated that it has already carried out preliminary testing of Medigen's jab. The document added that the research demonstrated that "these vaccines are safe and that they prompt the immune system to develop a response that could potentially protect from COVID."