A government health advisor says Taiwan could soon be getting a new brand of COVID-19 vaccine: the Novavax jab. Immunization committee head Li Ping-ying says Taiwan’s first shipment of the vaccine could come “in the near future”.
The Novavax COVID-19 vaccine uses the same technology as Taiwan’s Medigen jab. It has emergency approval from the World Health Organization, along with the European Union, the UK, South Korea and New Zealand.
In Phase III vaccine trials, Novavax jab was 90% effective at stopping people from developing symptoms of COVID-19. But those trials took place before the Omicron variant was widespread. Novavax says it is working on an Omicron-specific vaccine and it will begin manufacturing doses at commercial scale by the end of this month.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung says Taiwan has ordered 2 million doses of the Novavax vaccine through the vaccine sharing program COVAX. He says COVAX has been in contact about delivering the doses, but it isn’t clear how many will come or when they will arrive.
If the ministry authorizes the Novavax shot, it will be Taiwan’s fifth COVID-19 vaccine, alongside vaccines from Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, AstraZeneca and Medigen.