Moderna to supply COVID-19 vaccine to Taiwan and Colombia

Deliveries are expected to begin in mid-2021, the company added.

Reuters
February 10, 2021 / 01:54 PM IST

(Image: Reuters)

US drugmaker Moderna Inc will supply its COVID-19 vaccine to the governments of Taiwan and Colombia, the company said, providing five million and 10 million doses respectively.

Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine is not yet approved for use in Taiwan or Colombia and the company's statement said it will work with regulators to pursue necessary approvals prior to distribution.

Deliveries are expected to begin in mid-2021, the company added.

Late in December Taiwan said it had agreed to buy almost 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from UK drugmaker AstraZeneca, with the rest coming from the COVAX global vaccine programme and an unnamed company.

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COVID-19 Vaccine

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How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

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There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

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Taiwan has not previously announced the Moderna deal and has kept details of its vaccine plans largely under wraps, citing commercial confidentiality.

Taiwan Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters the vaccines, which will need to be administered as two shots 28 days apart, were expected to start arriving around May or June, with an agreement signed for 5.05 million doses.

"We will endeavour to push them to provide them as quickly as possible," Chen said on Wednesday.

This week Taiwan's government said it would also receive 200,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine from COVAX, with shots possibly starting next month.

The government has moved to assure its people it is working hard to ensure access to vaccines and is also developing vaccines domestically, though at a slower pace.

However, officials have also indicated that with the pandemic under control in Taiwan there is not the pressing need for vaccines that some other countries are facing. There are currently only 73 active cases being treated in hospital.

Germany last week ducked an appeal by Taiwan for its help to supply COVID-19 vaccines. Berlin had earlier asked the Asian tech powerhouse to ease a semiconductor supply crunch in the auto industry, potentially provoking China's ire.

Vaccines supplies are tight globally in any case.

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Reuters
TAGS: #Columbia #coronavirus #COVID-19 vaccine #Health #Moderna #Taiwan
first published: Feb 10, 2021 01:45 pm