Taiwan, Canada to collaborate on vaccine development

 2012/06/01 18:43:49Toronto, May 31 (CNA) Taiwan and Canada will cooperate on the development of new vaccines, with a specific target of completing first-phase clinical trials within five years, Taiwanese officials said during a recent conference on the partnership in Canada. Kuo Ming-liang, director-general of the Department of Life Science under Taiwan's National Science Council, who led the Taiwanese delegation to the conference, said that under the partnership, the two countries will develop vaccines, one to two of which they hope will be suitable for clinical trials in three years. The two-day conference, co-organized by the council, Taiwan's Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) and the National Research Council Canada (NRC), opened in Ottawa Wednesday and continued in Montreal the following day. Speaking at the opening ceremony of the conference, David Lee, Taiwan's representative to Canada, said Taiwan has been working closely with Canada in the scientific field over the past decade, collaborating in over 40 projects. Kuo said Taiwan and Canada each have advantages in developing vaccines against new infectious diseases and can complement each other, especially in the area of vaccine adjuvant, a substance that is added to vaccines to increase the body's immune response to the vaccine. Roman Szumski, vice president of life sciences at the NRC, said there is great potential if Taiwan and Canada work together on biological products using the ITRI's platforms and the NRC's technologies.