Up to 1,000 jobs in total are to be created at a Galway pharma firm that has developed an inhaled Covid vaccine.
Aerogen has grown its workforce by 500 in the past couple of years and with the announcement that it has been successful in developing its new innovative Covid medicine, it is set to hire another 500.
The west of Ireland firm developed the new product in partnership with a Chinese company, CanSinoBIO.
The company is now celebrating its success and yesterday announced its expansion plans thanks to the drug being authorised for use in China earlier this year.
Its ground-breaking aerosol inhaler was used to spearhead China’s booster programme by delivering a vaccine directly into the airways, removing the need for injections.
The drug inhaler has been approved for use in 11 of China’s 31 provinces.
It also uses just a fifth of the vaccine compared with the amount needed by a jab.
Aerogen chief executive, John Power, said today: “The more people you can convince to get vaccinated, the better chance you have of containment (of the virus).
“This is seen as a pretty significant step on the route to China opening up. It could really be a game changer.”
The medical entrepreneur said doing business in China presented “unique” challenges.
Mr Power added: “There are plenty of opportunities but you can get burnt if you don’t work with the right people.
“The important thing is you have got to be well-partnered in China.
“In our case, CanSinoBio are a publicly listed company – they are certainly not fly-by-night but are regarded as leaders in vaccine science in China and internationally.”
Aerogen won a top award at the Asia Matters Business Awards in Dublin earlier this year, an event organised every year by Irish think tank, Asia Matters.
Asia Matters’ chief executive, Martin Murray said: “The Government has stated that it wants two-way trade with Asia to reach 100 billion euro by 2025.
“The quality of this year’s entrants to our awards shows that goal is certainly achievable.”
The drug, Convidecia Air was granted Emergency Use Authorization as a booster dose by the National Medical Products Administration of China (NMPA) this year.
On October 25, Shanghai became the first city to initiate booster vaccination by inhalation for adults aged 18 and above, who have previously been primed with two shots of inactivated vaccines or one shot of Convidecia.
The aerosolised vaccine is directly inhaled via a cup dispenser into the patient’s airway.
This route mimics the natural infection pathway of the respiratory virus COVID-19 and may create additional benefits through generating mucosal immunity.
According to Phase III clinical trial published in December 2021 in the journal The Lancet, the injected Convidecia vaccine was 91.7% effective at preventing severe disease after four weeks or longer following a single administered dose.”
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