Taiwan’s Foxconn And TSMC Sing Deal To Buy 10 Million Doses Of BioNTech’s Covid-19 Jab

Two tech giants of Taiwan – Foxconn and TSMC – have signed a deal to purchase Germany’s BioNTech SE’s Covid-19 vaccine for USD 350 million. As per the highly politicized deal, these companies will procure 10 million jabs of Covid-19 vaccines. The government of Taiwan has been trying to buy Covid-19 jabs directly from the German biotechnology company but the deal couldn’t finalize. Taiwan’s government alleged that China played a role in nixing the agreement between them which they were set to sign earlier this year. However, China – which claims the self-ruled as its own territory – has termed these accusations as baseless.

Taiwan’s government was facing the ire of the public for the slow pace of Covid-19 vaccination in the country. This is why it agreed to allows the two companies to negotiate on its behalf for the vaccines. Without giving details about the deal, BioNTech’s Chinese sales agent Shanghai said that the deal has been finalized. Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical did not talk about the time frame in which these vaccines will be handed over to them. Commenting on the deal, Foxconn’s founder Terry Gou said that he is grateful that the deal has been sealed. As per the deal, both TSMC and Foxconn will purchase 5 million doses each. They will then donate these vaccines to the government for distribution.

“But we should not be complacent and try to push for delivery time. We are of the view this batch of vaccines delivered directly from Germany will instill confidence in the people of the country. It will also provide much-needed respite in the face of the epidemic,” he said. According to the Cabinet of Taiwan, the vaccines would be donated for free to the government. Both the companies issued a joint statement saying that vaccines are not expected to arrive until late September. At present, only about a tenth of Taiwan’s total population has received at first dose of the two-shot regime.