Covid: Taiwan rolls out homegrown vaccine amid criticism

Taiwan has begun administering its first domestically developed Covid-19 vaccine, amid criticism that its approval was rushed.

The island's health ministry authorised emergency use of the Medigen vaccine last month although clinical trials are yet to be completed.

Taiwan's vaccination efforts have been hampered by delivery delays and hesitancy amongst its population.

President Tsai Ing-wen led the way in receiving the Medigen jab on Monday.

At the time of its approval, the vaccine - made by Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corp - has yet to complete phase three trials but was granted emergency approval by regulators.

The company said there were no major safety concerns and studies showed that antibodies created were "no worse than" those created by AstraZeneca's vaccine.

It's expected to complete the final round of trials being held in Paraguay later this year.

Medigen, whose Chinese name literally means "high-end", is a recombinant protein vaccine, similar to the vaccine developed by Novavax.

The Novavax jab uses a more traditional method of recreating part of the spike protein of the virus to stimulate the immune system.