Taiwan plans coronavirus vaccine offensive for diplomatic allies
- Taipei says it will offer shots developed on the island to allies struggling to get supplies
- One candidate has been approved for emergency use and another is on the way after completing phase 2 trials
Health authorities have ordered 10 million doses from each developer even though their products have not been through phase 3, which involves random and blind testing of several hundred to several thousand patients.
01:34
US sends 2.5 million Covid-19 vaccine doses to Taiwan
“Due to the difficulty in acquiring the vaccines, some of our allies have expressed concerns about our development of the vaccines and hoped to [secure supply of those vaccines],” the ministry said.
“Also, as the Chinese government has repeatedly used its vaccine supplies to try to sabotage our relations with allies ... we have said that once we start mass producing our vaccines and have enough doses for our people, we are willing to study the feasibility of offering vaccines to our allies to fight the pandemic.”
Taiwan is also struggling to get vaccines to inoculate its 23.5 million people.