Posted on 11/19/2020 9:23:14 PM PST by SeekAndFind
Taipei, Nov. 18 (CNA) More than 20,000 volunteers had signed up with the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) as of Wednesday morning to participate in clinical trials of COVID-19 vaccines developed by Taiwanese companies, according to the CECC.
The CECC launched a volunteer recruitment platform on Nov. 11 to find at least 20,000 volunteers for separate trials of vaccines developed by three local companies -- Adimmune Corp., United Biomedical and Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp.
Though the platform met the target in just one week, the recruiting campaign will continue as scheduled until the end of this month to enlist as many volunteers as possible.
Health and Welfare Minister Chen Shih-chung (陳時ä¸) said last week that the three companies were expected to complete Phase 1 trials of their vaccine candidates soon, and they needed to build a larger pool of volunteers as they move into Phase 2 trials.
Under guidelines set by Taiwan's Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Phase 2 trials for COVID-19 vaccines must have at least 3,000 participants.
The three vaccine developers planned to recruit no fewer than 3,500 volunteers each for their Phase 2 trials but because of fears they would fall short of their recruiting goals the CECC set up the platform to help.
The recruitment website (in Chinese only), which asks volunteers to provide their contact information, randomly distributes participants to each of the three vaccine developers.
Volunteers must be at least 20 years old, or between 12-19 with the permission of a legal guardian, and should not have a chronic illness or a compromised immune system or have recently undergone surgery, or are pregnant or nursing.
According to the FDA, foreign nationals who have national health insurance cards are also eligible to volunteer, but it cautioned that the actual screening process will be carried out by the three vaccine developers themselves.
The CECC said trial participants will receive food and transportation subsidies, but did not confirm how much.
If anyone in any of the trials experiences an adverse reaction, the government will "unconditionally" take responsibility for their treatment and compensation, the CECC said.
What does Taiwan have to fear from man-made viruses?
Maybe a Chinese invasion after a dose of biological warfare?
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