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Taiwan and Singapore Join Hands in Fight against Coronavirus

Date: 2021-04-09

Liang-Yo Yang, Dean of Office of Global Affairs, China Medical University (CMU), is the principal investigator of Taiwan-Singapore Aging and Cancer Overseas Science and Technology Innovation Center (ACOSTIC) of Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST). He and the co-principal investigator’s devotion to the Center for the past two years have contributed to the following: CMU and National University of Singapore (NUS) signed an MoU; CMU-NUS Joint Symposium was held three times; heavyweight scholars from NUS were invited to Taiwan (such as Senior Vice President Khay Yuan YEOH, Dean Yap Seng Chong of Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Distinguished Professor/Director Bin Tean Teh); The close and strong partnership was established; the two universities deepened their substantial collaboration on research by funding seven seed projects including frontier research on aging, cancer, neuroscience, and traditional Chinese medicine.

 

NUS was to host the fourth NUS-CMU Joint Symposium on June 15 and 16, 2020, but the event was postponed three times due to COVID-19. Now, CMU and NUS have rescheduled it to September 23 and 24, 2021, on which they will discuss how to carry out deeper and longer collaborative research projects on aging, cancer, neuroscience, and traditional Chinese medicine.

 

Since the outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan at the end of 2019, the disease has by far infected more than 100 million people and killed over two million, with the number of confirmed cases still increasing. To prevent the spread of the virus, many countries have closed borders, imposed lockdowns on major cities, and canceled or postponed large-scale international events. For example, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics has been postponed to 2021. Needless to say, the coronavirus has taken its toll on the world economy. COVID-19 has the most serious impact on human health and economic activities than almost any other pandemics in the past century.

 

In response to the novel coronavirus, the Taiwanese government has invested in disease prevention and vaccine development; moreover, the MOST has provided abundant resources to encourage the academic and medical circles to dive into the R&D of reagents and drugs that test, prevent, and treat COVID-19.

 

Under the leadership of CMU President Mien-Chie Hung, the school formed a COVID-19 research team to delve into thousands of FDA-approved drugs, small molecule drugs, and traditional Chinese medicines in search of inhibitors of the viral protease activity. The team’s effort paid off in the end. It discovered approximately ten drugs that could effectively inhibit the viral protease activity. Some of the research results are already published in several prestigious international journals, including “Tannic Acid Suppresses SARS-CoV-2 as a Dual Inhibitor of the Viral Main Protease and the Cellular TMPRSS2 Protease, and Inhibition of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 Main Protease by Tafenoquine in Vitro.”

 

Taiwan has done an excellent job of containing the pandemic, so the number of confirmed cases, either indigenous or imported, is low. Although this is good news for the health of people in Taiwan, it has made it more difficult for researchers to find or develop treatments for patients. CMU had to cooperate with foreign institutions for clinical trials to test whether the drugs it had found could effectively treat or relieve COVID-19 symptoms.

 

Thanks to ACOSTIC’s Principal Investigator Yang, Hung’s research team and National University Health System (NUHS) had the opportunity to work together on COVID-19 studies. The first thing they did was to sign a confidentiality and non-disclosure agreement to protect the R&D results of both parties and the patient’s piracy. Next, they signed an MoU on COVID-19 clinical trials to establish the rights and obligations, to lay the groundwork for this cooperation.

 

The two partners then held intensive discussions on their research through the internet, participants including Hung, Yang, CMU COVID-19 research team, NUHS clinical trial research team, and Khay Yuan YEOH, NUS vice president and NUHS chief executive. Hung and the CMU team first elaborated on how they had sifted through FDA-approved drugs and seen the discovery of around ten with the viral protease activity inhibitor.

 

Online meetings were held among CMU COVID-19 research team, Yeoh, Senior Consultant Louis Chai, Division of Infectious Disease, Research Strategy and New Projects Director Meng Har Lee, and members of the NUHS clinical trial research team. After extensive discussions, it was agreed that the FDA-approved drugs were safe enough to go into the phase II clinical trial. CMU would provide a detailed report on the drugs’ in-vitro testing, and NUHS would be in charge of writing the clinical trial application and setting up patients for the treatment.

 

The Singapore government has successfully contained the pandemic, and its COVID-19 cases are dropping considerably. Therefore, the current strategy of CMU-NUS cooperation is to finish the application and apply for its execution when there are COVID-19 patients for the trial.

 

Due to the decrease in COVID-19 cases in Singapore, CMU research team followed Yang’s advice to reach out to the healthcare research team of Airlangga University, Indonesia. The purpose was to be able to carry out clinical trials for the inhibitor CMU had discovered.

 

Daily confirmed cases were rising in Indonesia and many of the patients showed severe symptoms, so Airlangga University was urgent to find treatments. Yang arranged an online meeting between Hung’s team and Airlangga University’s team where both parties agreed on joining forces. CMU would provide a detailed report on the drugs’ in-vitro testing and write the clinical trial application, and then Airlangga University’s team would revise the application according to Indian regulations and set up patients for the treatment.

 

Current COVID-19 vaccines have been clinically tested to be effective for the body to produce antibody, or in relieving the symptoms if one’s infected. World governments are focused on vaccinating the people. However, numerous people still die from the disease every single day. It is imperative to develop medicines to treat the disease. Medication is a high priority. Hopefully, in the joint effort of CMU and NUS, the phase II clinical trial for the drugs can be carried out in Singapore or Indonesia as early as possible, and be licensed to save lives.

 

 

Teleconference on collaborative COVID-19 research between Hung’s research and Yeoh’s healthcare team

Pic 1:Teleconference on collaborative COVID-19 research between Hung’s research and Yeoh’s healthcare team

 

CMU and NUHS signing Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement

Pic 2:CMU and NUHS signing Confidentiality and Non-Disclosure Agreement

 

 

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