MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Paraguay greenlights use of Taiwanese COVID-19 vaccine

Medigen's drug was developed with help from the National Institute of Health (NIH) from the United States

Paraguayan health authorities Monday issued an emergency clearance for the use of the Taiwanese-developed Medigen COVID-19 vaccine, it was announced.

The National Directorate of Sanitary Surveillance (Dinavisa) authorized local health care practitioners to use MVC-COV1901 produced by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation (MVC) in people over 18 years of age, Paraguay's Health Ministry said in a statement. The Taiwanese laboratory completed phase 3 of its clinical studies in the country since August last year, for which some 1,000 volunteers were summoned.

Dinavisa's approval came after a team of Paraguayan experts visited the production laboratories in Taiwan, it was reported.

According to the Ministry, the studies showed that the vaccine -made from a protein subunit platform- meets the “safety, tolerability and high immunogenicity” requirements. Ministry officials will nevertheless keep monitoring the safety of the Taiwanese vaccines once they start being used locally, it was announced.

The drug is to be injected in two doses four weeks apart from each other. The vaccines were developed with help from the National Institute of Health (NIH) from the United States.

The chemical needs to be stored at between two and eight degrees Celsius.

Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration granted emergency authorization July 19 last year for the use of Medigen's vaccine and is now being used by local authorities as a booster dose.
Paraguay is already applying vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna, Astra-Zeneca, Sputnik V, Coronavac and Sinopharm.