A close neighbor of China, Taiwan has coped with the Covid-19 crisis brilliantly. Indeed, the country has not been confined and its balance sheet is among the lowest in all of Asia. Even better, Taiwan is continuing its research, so much so that a local team has just discovered a monoclonal antibody capable of preventing the coronavirus from entering the body.
Yet excluded from the World Health Organization (WHO), Taiwan was the first country to warn the latter that the Covid-19 epidemic was going to become a global pandemic . Taiwan has above all been exemplary on its own territory, with an early closure of borders, the adoption of strict measures and general respect for barrier gestures. As a result, the country has at the end of May 2020 a balance sheet of only 441 cases for 7 deaths . Better still, for a month, no new cases have been detected there.
Taiwan, currently struggling with China on the political field, is showing an unfailing example. The many aid embodied by the sending of surgical masks, in particular to countries like France, are there to testify to this. In addition, Taiwan also stands out by conducting a lot of research on Covid-19 , especially with the aim of finding a cure.
An article published by Radio Taiwan International on May 28, 2020 refers to research carried out by Chang Gung University in Taoyuan (Taiwan). According to the researchers, they have discovered a monoclonal antibody capable of preventing the SARS-CoV-2 (Covid-19) virus from entering the human body. However, it is a question of a capacity to inhibit the virus ranging from 90% to 98% . This research follows the recent identification of 25 monoclonal antibodies in patients with Covid-19.
The researchers also indicated that they had identified the same inhibiting effect for several strains of the coronavirus, namely those from Wuhan, the United States, Europe but also from Egypt. According to the leaders of the study, this monoclonal antibody is considered to have the highest potential for drug development
For Shih Shin Ru, director of the Emerging Virus Infections Research Center at Chang Gung University, drugs incorporating antibodies are safer. Indeed, these are made from substances naturally produced by the human body. However, this is not the case with pharmaceutical products which, it should be remembered, involve toxic risks.
In any case, the researchers plan to transfer the know-how concerning this antibody in order to allow mass production trials. If all goes as planned, the first drugs will be on the market by the end of the year.
