Coronavirus: Taiwan firms reach US$350 million deal to import 10 million doses direct from BioNTech
- The vaccine will be donated to Taiwan’s government which was frustrated in its own attempts to buy BioNTech doses and blamed Beijing for blocking a deal
- By June 30, about 99,000 Taiwanese had received 174,000 shots on the mainland, prompted by the vaccine shortage on the island
In separate statements to the Taiwan Stock Exchange on Monday, the two companies said they would each buy 5 million doses from BioNTech. Each would pay US$175 million for the shots, cold-chain storage and handling charges.
“The vaccine doses will be donated to the Centres for Disease Control of the cabinet-level Ministry of Health and Welfare,” the statements said.
In another joint statement issued later, the two listed companies said they expected the first batch would arrive in Taiwan in September to be followed by other batches according to the German firm’s production and delivery schedule.
BioNTech’s Chinese agent, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical, said late on Sunday it had signed the agreement with the two companies, a charity foundation of Foxconn billionaire founder Terry Gou and Taiwan-based Zuellig Pharma, which represents the three parties to import the vaccine. Under Taiwanese law, only qualified pharmaceutical firms are permitted to import vaccines.
