Good news! Initial deal signed for 10 million BioNTech vaccines! Gou and TSMC following Japan and USA’s lead in saving DPP’s ass.
Weird… I’m in Kaohsiung and didn’t hear anything about this today. I thought the protest would be a bunch of crazy anti-vaxxers, but the headline says they’re “calling for COVID vaccines”… so they’re pissed they’re not getting enough in their area? Well, at least that makes me feel that there’s still plenty of Taiwanese eager to get vaccinated. Maybe we can get to 60% after all.
The agreements were reached with a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (600196.SS), which has a contract with BioNTech to sell the COVID-19 vaccines in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the sources said.
One of the sources said both Gou and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) reached an “initial agreement” to purchase 5 million vaccine doses each with the Chinese company, adding it was not a final contract and it will still take some time to close the deal.
Both sources said although global supplies are tight, Fosun, as an exclusive dealer for the vaccine in China and Taiwan, is able to secure higher priority for the vaccine distribution.
Don’t see how this is saving the DPP’s ass. It would be a win for TW on the vaccine front because any vaccine, no matter the source, is a good thing, but it looks like a big loss for TW geopolitically.
Probably a group of KMTers or some of their fanatical supporters jumping in on the “Taiwan needs vaccines” train that was started in Taipei a few weeks to a month ago. They were calling on people to be loud and noisy at a certain time(s) of the day and even telling people to open their windows and bang pots and pans in support of vaccines…
Ironically enough about 1 or 2 days later was when it was announced Japan was donating a bunch of vaccines and not long after that US also said it was going to be donating vaccines, both of which had been worked on behind the scenes for weeks already.
Kudos to Reuters for breaking this story linked above. Here are all its details. Judge for yourself.
TAIPEI, July 2 (Reuters) - Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan’s Foxconn (2317.TW), and TSMC (2330.TW) reached initial agreements to buy 5 million doses each of BioNTech SE’s (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccine on Friday, three sources with knowledge of the situation told Reuters.
Taiwan’s government has tried for months to buy the shots directly from Germany’s BioNTech and has blamed China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, 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 Taiwan’s inoculation programme, the government agreed to allow Gou and TSMC to negotiate on its behalf for the vaccines, which would be donated to Taiwan’s government for distribution. read more
The agreements were reached with a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (600196.SS), which has a contract with BioNTech to sell the COVID-19 vaccines in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, the sources said.
One of the sources said both Gou and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) reached an “initial agreement” to purchase 5 million vaccine doses each with the Chinese company, adding it was not a final contract and it will still take some time to close the deal.
The person added that the agreement signed included “related legal documents” needed to finalise the deal, but the agreement does not specify a possible delivery date, as global demand for vaccines continues to outstrip supply.
The vaccines will be shipped directly to Taiwan from the German manufacturer, the person added.
Taiwan’s government has said any BioNTech vaccines should be “produced in the original factory with the original packaging” and be directly delivered to Taiwan.
Neither Foxconn, a major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) supplier, nor Fosun responded to requests for comment outside of business hours.
TSMC said in a brief emailed statement it was still a work in progress and “no further information is available at this time”.
BioNTech declined to comment.
A second source told Reuters 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.
"The German government doesn’t want to leave the impression that they didn’t sell vaccines to Taiwan due to the Chinese pressure, so it has been pushing the company to speed up its talks with Taiwan," the source said, referring to BioNTech.
The German Foreign Ministry declined to immediately comment.
Both sources said although global supplies are tight, Fosun, as an exclusive dealer for the vaccine in China and Taiwan, is able to secure higher priority for the vaccine distribution.
Only around 9% of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people have received at least one of the two dose COVID-19 vaccine regimen, a need made more urgent by a spike in domestic infections on the island, though numbers remain relatively small.
Reporting by Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and the Taipei newsroom; Editing by Kirsten Donovan
Source: EXCLUSIVE Taiwan's Terry Gou, TSMC reach initial agreements for BioNTech vaccines -sources | Reuters
Guy
I don’t want to beat a dead horse, but we all know the administration didn’t prepare enough vaccines for the eventuality of an outbreak (yeah, yeah, one deal fell through at the beginning of the year… and now every lack of prep has been blamed on that one deal) and now we’ve been coasting on donations from Japan and the USA for the last month and a half.
Please. Don’t exaggerate. If DPP didn’t want to have to rely on private companies to ink deals where they couldn’t, then they should’ve done a more competent job of securing vax deals a year ago instead of putting all their eggs in the Medigen basket. Not everything can be blamed on China. As Radiohead once said “you do it to yourself, you do, and that’s what really hurts.”
I never said it was China’s fault. I’ve consistently said that BnT is a red herring. TW could and should have ordered more Moderna and AZ, and could have placed bets on J&J, Novavax, etc. too.
But it was too cheap and risk averse.
To end up having private entities buy BnT through a Chinese company (Fosun) on behalf of the country is a big embarrassment for TW.
I think the embarrassment is mostly for DPP, not the country as a whole. And to be honest, they should feel a bit embarrassed.
I won’t be embarrassed if I have a chance to get one of those vaccines. 
Guy
I see no embarrassment. That order of vaccines still represent a part, not the majority, of the vaccines required. Again, may I remind you, BNT is not the only player nor is this the only order made and paid for. Taiwan spread it’s bets. We do have AZ and US vacs on the pipeline. Yes, not enough for all the population but it was not intended to have all bets in one basket. And it was good as AZ has failed it’s commitment and Moderna was delayed. By the time this order makes it to Taiwan, it will be one of the choices added to a growing pile, not the only one, not the savior.
And that is the problem of hailing this as a savior. The workhorse of vaccines, AZ, is being rejected in Taiwan. Moderna is going to take second place through curated propaganda. The struggle to elevate this deal has promoted vaccine hesitancy. And if at the end China does interfere and we get stuck with Chinese products or any shady deal that breaks our already fragile legality, then yes, the Government will be to blame, not of actual incompetence, but through a malicious act of entrapment by forces loyal to the Other Side.
This is China-level propaganda spin.
Why? China propaganda is pushing this is the hail Mary. It is not. It is not unwelcome but it is a part, not the lion’s share.
The AZ shipments were delayed. Yes, they were not enough, but there was also Moderna and local vaccines bought and paid already. The idea is to have choices, a variety of sources, and have local production, which cannot be manipulated by external forces, set for national security reasons.
Why? Because you’re spinning TW’s shitty vaccine situation as the result of some thoughtful diversification strategy when it’s patently obvious that TPTB were overconfident and had no urgency. Chen Shih-chung even admitted that there was no urgency because the virus wasn’t in TW. Until it was and the country was caught with its pants down.
What exactly are you telling us that we don’t already know?
It’s amazing how some folks can turn lemonade into lemons. 
Guy
I’ve always been highly doubtful that these (as yet unseen) vaccines will ever reach TW shores. The entire affair was extremely public from the get-go and appeared to me to be primarily motivated by politicking rather than actual vaccine acquisition.
If these vaccines ever hit land here, then color me surprised.
Its a massive embarrassment for the Tsai administration to have to be bailed out by donations and the private sector/civil society groups. They still saved their ass though, because the embarrassment of us ending the year with no vaccines and a possible DELTA outbreak would be way worse.
But saying that, fuck politics, thats not the important thing. We have possibly averted a major crisis and should be relieved
Also thanks so much to TSMC and Guo for making the donations, would be over 200 million USD each
As noted above, Reuters has confirmed this is actually happening.
Date of delivery however is not yet known.
Guy
Also could be another five million purchase by Tzu Chi coming up.
I guess we’ll have to wait and see 