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Order now: Taiwan must act fast to secure more BioNTech vaccine, Foxconn’s Terry Gou says
- German firm responded positively to possible future order for more doses, billionaire says after talks with company
- Health minister says more Moderna doses on the way and island is using different jabs to spread the risk
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Taiwan might be able to order more Covid-19 vaccines from German firm BioNTech to help the island fend off new variants of the coronavirus but it should do so as soon as possible to ensure supply, according to billionaire Foxconn founder Terry Gou.
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Gou’s Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) last month succeeded in getting permission from mainland Chinese firm Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical to buy 15 million shots of the vaccine directly from BioNTech.
Fosun has exclusive rights to distribute the vaccine in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, but the Taiwanese government was not willing to order the shots via Fosun.
With the help of Buddhist charity the Tzu Chi Foundation, Foxconn and TSCM offered to buy the jabs and donate them to the self-ruled island, clearing the political hurdles for the import of the jabs.
Gou later went to Germany where he discussed the shipment with BioNTech.
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In a Facebook post on Sunday, Gou said the company promised to send the jabs to Taiwan as soon as possible, and gave a “positive response” to a possible order for 30 million more doses for next year.
He said many people in Taiwan wanted to have the BioNTech jabs, and health authorities should order soon before the jabs were sold out.
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