CORONAVIRUS/Taiwan's CDC to publish Medigen COVID-19 research in U.S. journal

Taipei, Feb. 2 (CNA) Research conducted by Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) showing the locally-produced Medigen COVID-19 vaccine to be as effective as those from Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech is set to be published in a U.S. medical journal.

The research paper will be published in the March issue of Emerging Infectious Diseases, a monthly peer-reviewed journal from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC Deputy Director-General Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told CNA on Friday.

Lo said that the CDC would be publishing the positive results of its research into Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.'s protein subunit COVID-19 vaccine, which has been proven to provide 90 percent protection against moderate to severe infections in individuals with three doses.

The protein subunit vaccine is effective against the Omicron subvariant and could protect those receiving immunization from moderate to severe symptoms and even death, according to Lo.

Moreover, the CDC's research is the first large-data set comparison between the strengths of mRNA and protein subunit vaccines, Lo said.

Taiwan's CDC explained that data for the research was collected domestically in Taiwan through the nation's vaccine rollout programs.

The data used for the comparison was based on more than 60 million vaccine jabs received by over 23 million individuals during the mass Omicron community infections that broke out domestically in 2022.

The CDC said the research concluded that the protection provided by Medigen's protein subunit vaccine was equal to that offered by those produced by Moderna and Pfizer BioNTech, which have been proven to be more efficient and long-lasting than those from AstraZeneca (AZ).

The research completely maps out the strength of various vaccine combinations between different age groups and the results are available to experts around the world, the CDC said.

Lo told CNA that the CDC's findings, which have already been made public, were presented at the 30th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections in Seattle last February.

The CDC also advised anyone who received an AZ vaccine as their first two initial inoculation jabs to get additional boosters with next-generation serums.