Moderna Inc has refused to hand over to China the core intellectual property behind the development of its COVID-19 vaccine, leading to a collapse in negotiations on its sale in the country, the Financial Times reported on Saturday, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based pharmaceutical company turned down China’s request to disclose the formula for its mRNA vaccine because of commercial and safety concerns, the newspaper said, citing people involved in negotiations that took place from 2020 to last year, adding that the vaccine maker is still “eager” to sell the product to China.
The company had “given up” on its previous efforts to access the Chinese market because of Beijing’s demand that it reveal the technology as a prerequisite for its sale in the country, the report said.
Photo: Reuters
China has not approved any foreign COVID-19 vaccines and relies on several domestically developed shots.
Moderna chief medical officer Paul Burton last month said the company is keen to collaborate with China on supplying its mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines to the country.
“We would certainly be very eager to collaborate with China if they felt that there was a need for a vaccine there,” Burton told a news conference. “Currently, there is no activity going on, but we’d be very open to it.”
Moderna established a subsidiary in Taiwan on Thursday last week, as the company makes efforts to collaborate with the nation’s private and public sectors, as well as academia, the subsidiary’s general manager Joyce Lee (李宜真) said.
Meanwhile, Taiwan has since early last month received four shipments of the US company’s next-generation COVID-19 vaccine targeting the BA.4 and BA.5 Omicron subvariants of SARS-CoV-2, and local cities and counties began administering the doses on Sept. 24, the Central Epidemic Command Center said.
Additional reporting by staff writer
US PROBE: The Information reported that the US Department of Commerce is investigating whether the firm made advanced chips for China’s Huawei Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract maker of advanced chips, yesterday said it is a law-abiding company, and is committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations including export controls. The Hsinchu-based chip giant issued the statement after US news Web site The Information ran a story saying that the US Department of Commerce has launched a probe into TSMC over whether it breached export rules by making smartphone or artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為). “We maintain a robust and comprehensive export system for monitoring and ensuring compliance,” the statement said. “If we
REGIONAL COMPETITION: Over the past few years the Philippines has lost ground to neighbors such as Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia, a Philippine official said The Philippines is trying to enlist Taiwanese chip giants to expand in semiconductors, a bid to catch up with its neighbors who are emerging as significant suppliers in the industry. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電) are among companies the Philippines is reaching out to as it seeks equipment and expertise to build out chip fabrication operations, said Dan Lachica, head of the Southeast Asian country’s main electronics industry group, the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Foundation Inc (SEIPI). The association is working with Philippine officials in Taiwan to talk with potential
DEMAND FOR AI CHIPS: Net income in the third quarter surged 31.2% quarter-on-quarter to NT$325.26 billion, the strongest quarterly return in the company’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s biggest contract chipmaker, yesterday raised its revenue forecast to annual growth of 30 percent this year, thanks to strong and sustainable demand for artificial intelligence (AI) processors for servers. It was the second upward adjustment from 25 percent year-on-year growth estimated three months ago, despite recent concerns about whether the AI boom could be another technology bubble. “The demand is real. It’s real. And I believe it is just the beginning of this demand. Alright, so one of my key customers said the demand right now is ‘insane,’” TSMC chairman and chief executive C.C.
Starbucks Corp might have the more recognizable name, but 7-Eleven’s City Cafe remains the king of Taiwan’s fresh coffee market, helped by the convenience store chain’s extensive market presence and product diversification. President Chain Store Corp (PCSC, 統一超商), which runs both the 7-Eleven and Starbucks store chains in Taiwan, established the City Cafe brand in 2004. The brand took off when actress Gwei Lun-mei (桂綸鎂) became its spokesperson in 2007. City Cafe’s sales exceeded NT$10 billion (US$311.69 million) for the first time in 2015, surpassing the revenue of Starbucks Taiwan, and rose to more than NT$17 billion last year, exceeding the NT$14.98