Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密) founder Terry Gou (郭台銘) and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) on Friday reached initial agreements to buy 5 million doses each of BioNTech SE’s COVID-19 vaccine, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
The government has tried for months to buy the shots directly from Germany’s BioNTech and has blamed China for nixing a deal the two sides were due to sign earlier this year. China denies the accusations.
Last month, facing public pressure about the slow pace of its inoculation program, the government agreed to allow Gou and TSMC to negotiate on its behalf for the vaccines, which would be donated to the government for distribution.
The agreements were reached with a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (上海復星醫藥集團), which has a contract with BioNTech to sell the COVID-19 vaccines in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong and Macau, the sources said.
One of the sources said Gou and TSMC reached an “initial agreement” to purchase 5 million vaccine doses each from the Chinese company, adding that it was not a final contract and it would still take some time to close the deal.
The person added that the agreement signed included “related legal documents” needed to finalize the deal, but the agreement does not specify a possible delivery date, as global demand for vaccines continues to outstrip supply.
The vaccines would be shipped directly to Taiwan from the German manufacturer, the person added.
The government has said any BioNTech vaccines should be “produced in the original factory with the original packaging” and be directly delivered to Taiwan.
A second source told Reuters that the German government, which has said it has been trying to help Taiwan obtain the BioNTech vaccines, had been trying to speed up the talks.
Both sources said that although global supplies are tight, Fosun, as an exclusive dealer for the vaccine in Taiwan and China, is able to secure higher priority for the vaccine distribution.
Neither Hon Hai nor TSMC yesterday provided further details following the Reuters report.
“Efforts are still being made to procure the vaccine,” Hon Hai said in a statement.
The company’s YongLin Education Foundation, which is to import the vaccine on its behalf, also declined to provide further details.
TSMC said in a brief e-mailed statement that it was still a work in progress and “no further information is available at this time.”
BioNTech declined to comment, as has Fosun, which did not respond to requests for comment outside of business hours.
In response to media queries, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中), who heads the Central Epidemic Command Center, said that progress in Gou’s and TSMC’s vaccine procurement is “going relatively smoothly.”
“The task is challenging for Hon Hai and TSMC, but from the bosses to the legal departments of the two companies, they have been working very hard on it, so we are very grateful,” he added.
In related news, Novavax Inc on Friday said that Taiwan has chosen to obtain the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine via the COVAX global sharing scheme.
Novavax in an e-mailed statement said it already had an agreement to supply its vaccine to the COVAX initiative.
“Taiwan has opted to receive doses of NVX-CoV2373 through COVAX,” it said, referring to the vaccine’s generic name, without giving details.
Chen earlier this week said that the government was in talks with Novavax, although he did not provide details regarding the number of doses or a delivery schedule.
Only about 9 percent of Taiwan’s 23.5 million population have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Additional reporting by Lee I-chia and CNA
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