Focus Taiwan
Date: 11/17/2020
By: Chen Wei-ting and Elizabeth Hsu

Taipei, Nov. 17 (CNA) People in Taiwan may be able to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine, developed and produced by international companies, by mid-2021, the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) said Tuesday.

An experimental vaccine developed by the American biotech company Moderna Inc. has yielded striking early results, showing close to 95 percent efficacy, it was announced Monday, one week after Pfizer and BioNTech reported promising results in their joint COVID-19 vaccine trials.

Asked about Taiwan's plans to acquire COVID-19 vaccines, CECC spokesman Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said Tuesday that while the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines are in the third stage of human trials, there are other candidates.

Taiwan will not focus on any one vaccine candidate but rather would try to acquire them through the COVAX allocation plan, domestic research and development programs, and from international drug makers, he said.    [FULL  STORY]