Coronavirus Vaccine in Taiwan - May/June 2021

one more positive point, no test subjects showed side effects, which is the advantage of this kind of technology in comparison with RNA based one, and casualty far lower than that of Kim of divergent BMI.

Raw materials materials is not the only problem.

2 posts were merged into an existing topic: From coronavirus

Here’s an english news report on the medigen trial results for those interested.

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Remember that the sample size here remains small (around 4000?).

IIRC, the viral vector vaccines (including AZ and J&J) did not start to show the ultra rare but very serious blood clotting issues until the numbers went into the hundreds of thousands (even after Phase III trials, which also failed to reveal this trouble).

Guy

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AZ blood clotting seems less common among East Asians, and the protein-induced immune response seems to behave more predictably. I agree that only time and size would tell, as in the case of other things.

Not sure, but I think East Asians haven’t really been vaccinated en mass with the AZ vaccine.

yes, relevant sample size is too small.

Medigen is to conduct phase 3 trials for its vaccine to earn approval from foreign regulators and it aims to conduct the tests in Europe, Chen said, adding that the UK recently allowed a French company to conduct phase 3 human testing there.

It costs about US$10,000 per participant in phase 3 trials, so the costs would be enormous if Medigen recruited 30,000 participants, Chen said.

It is NOT cheap to do phase-3 trials.
These local vaccine firms don’t have (US$10,000 x 30,000) just hanging in their bank accounts.

Why the enormous cost for a phase three, per participant? Does economy of scale not work in this case? Like will each participant need to go through a huge battery of tests and MRI scans?

Because if a firm could do phase 3 tests they could send a satellite to space. It costs the same.

It is the standard in the industry.
There is no “expensive” cost for Taiwan and cheap elsewhere.

Well what is 10,000 US per participant paying for? What is it that makes it so expensive? Is it paying the participant? Is it all the tests done on each participant? What is it? Because this kind of cost rival space programs, and space programs are expensive.

Dude. It is what it is.
That exact cost was told to me by people inside the industry a few months ago.
Knowing what the U$10,000 per participant goes towards is something I’m not willing to investigate for you (and I say that politely :slight_smile: ).

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So all it is is that it costs a ton of money, money that no Taiwanese firms have. Money that would pay for a single space shuttle flight (which is actually quite expensive because governments are rather wasteful in this regard). But no transparency at all as to what pharma companies are paying for, just that it costs a lot.

If this is something they are doing, and the government (and by extension taxpayers) are paying for, wouldn’t it be nice to have some transparency as to why it costs so much?? From what I can see, someone gives me a jab of the vaccine, they give a few others placebo. Then I get bloodwork done to see if the vaccine works as well as studies as to whether or not I contract the disease it is supposed to protect me against. I don’t see this costing 10,000 US per person at all. Maybe a thousand dollars, at most, administration, data processing, etc


Or is that to grease some palms at various international bodies?

Because if Taiwan has money to pay space X to launch some stuff for them, then they have the money to pay for a phase 3 trial, if they really want to push this through.

I agree with the bold point.
But, you won’t ever get transparency from ANY government, no matter if ruled by left-wing, right-wing, communist, royalty, or otherwise. Governments will “tell the people” on a need to know basis. Sucks being commonfolks, doesn’t it?

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So what you are saying is, it costs a lot, but industries will not say what that cost goes into.

There are some serious price fixing going on here.

Yeah! Bingo!
You now understand the health insurance industry AND the biotech field. Now go to 7-Eleven and buy some Hi-Chews.
Just make sure to scan your QR tracker code.

I have a strong feeling, that Taiwan may just simply roll the stuff out with a EUA, and probably work on a phase 3 concurrently. Basically using us as guinea pigs. And if it’s successful, they’ll somehow pitch it to international bodies that it works. Failing that give AZ booster shots for those who wishes to travel.

Ethically questionable, but so is the country going bankrupt due to lockdowns
 Because I’m almost 100% certain that is what China did with their no good vaccines.

If I were English Vegetable, I would just write a blank check to those firms to do phase-3 trials. What the hell
 nearly all the world’s central banks are dropping money like buckets of rain during a typhoon, and Taiwan gov’t wants to turn stingy right now.
Who gives a fuq. Runs those printers. YOLO. Let’s go Weimar 2 here in Taiwan in the vaccine field.

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Sure, but use of some drug within a sovereign country is after all dictated by the government. So I’m pretty sure they’ll just EUA the stuff and work on the rest. But I researched some numbers and a phase 3 test seems to be around 20 million or so. It’s a lot of money but not something that big Taiwanese firms can’t pay for.