A batch of 265,528 COVID-19 vaccines produced by Taiwanese company Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation has passed initial inspections. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says that it approved the vaccines for use last Friday.
Health authorities will begin distributing the doses to hospitals and vaccination centres as soon as Monday evening. The vaccine doses can be stored for six months before they expire. However, Health Minister Chen Shih-Chung says that Medigen doses will not be administered until the vaccine count hits 500,000 to 600,000.
Medigen’s COVID-19 vaccine received Emergency Use Authorization from the Taiwanese government on July 18. However, Monday’s inspection results show that Medigen sent this initial batch to the FDA in late June or early July, at a time when Medigen’s vaccine had not been granted EUA.
Head of the FDA’s research and inspection division Wang Teh-yuan says he does not know why his department received Medigen’s vaccines so early. He says that decision was out of his hands. Wang says that his department has been thorough with its inspection of the vaccines. He says they took 30 days to finish the process, in line with FDA requirements.
Right now, 906,000 people in Taiwan say they are willing to receive a Medigen COVID-19 vaccine. That’s according to statistics from the government’s vaccine registration system.