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Updated Monday, November 16, 2009 9:55 am TWN, By Sofia Wu, CNA

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H1N1 vaccine is biotech success

Huang, who presided over the Adimmune clinical trial program, said the vaccine is on a par with its foreign counterparts in terms of both safety and efficacy.

“Apprehensive or jittery parents tend to become more confident of the local vaccine after listening to my explanation,” Huang said.

Chou Chih-hau, deputy director of the DOH's Centers for Disease Control, said about 3 million local people on the priority list for immunization will be administered with the Adimmune vaccine.

Previously, Adimmune's only experience with flu vaccine was packaging seasonal flu vaccine produced by Japan's Kitasato medical research center.

In manufacturing the H1N1 vaccine, the company started from scratch and succeeded in developing a world-class product in less than six months.

With an annual production capacity of 30 million doses, Chan said, the company is seeking to export its products. Moreover, the company plans to sell its original vaccine to Europe through the Dutch company Crucell, one of its shareholders.

Adimmune has come a long way to emerge as Taiwan's only human vaccine producer.

When the government decided to develop and produce SARS and H5N1 bird flu vaccines under a build-operate-own (BOO) formula in 2003, Adimmune lost to a foreign competitor in a bid to secure the NT$4 billion contract.

The company then decided to go its own way and built a vaccine plant in partnership with Crucell in 2007.

The government-backed BOO project later fell through when the foreign contractor merged with another business group.

After years of delay, the government finally abandoned the BOO project and decided to give an opportunity to Adimmune by guaranteeing to procure its vaccines under contract.

When Chan took over as Adimmune chairman last year, the company was still heavily in debt following the NT$3 billion expenditure for the vaccine factory in which the company had invested NT$700 million.

Under Chan's leadership, however, the company managed to secure investment from the government-owned National Development Fund, which now has a roughly 20 percent or so stake in the company.

In addition to financial support, the DOH has also posted specialists in the plant to offer technological assistance, even though the company remains a privately own business.

During his tenure as DOH minister between 1997 and 2000, Chan initiated a publicly funded seasonal flu vaccination program, so it is fitting that Taiwan has successfully produced its own swine flu vaccine under his supervision.

Under Chan's leadership, Adimmune will not be satisfied with just serving the local market. Chan, a U.S.-trained surgeon, said in an interview with CNA that his company plans to set up a second vaccine factory to produce vaccines for other diseases and even innovative ones, such as an enterovirus vaccine and a dengue fever vaccine.

“We have a dream of becoming one of the major vaccine manufacturers in the world,” Chan said. “With hard work, we believe it is not an impossible dream.”

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