Large corporations donate: BioNTech cans for Taiwan

Two Taiwanese corporations have signed a purchase agreement with the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech. The ten million doses of vaccine will be given as a gift to the people of Taiwan.

The Taiwanese technology company Foxconn and the semiconductor company TSMC each want to donate five million doses of vaccine from Germany to their country. As Foxconn founder Terry Gou writes on the Internet, the deliveries are to come directly from the German manufacturer – and as soon as possible to help Taiwan fight the pandemic. His company and his foundation are providing the equivalent of more than 150 million euros. The largest semiconductor company in the world, TSMC, puts just as much on top.

Commenting on the deal, BioNTech co-founder and CEO Ugur Sahin said he was excited to provide EU-made vaccine to Taiwanese people. The sales partner is the Chinese group Fosun.

Highly political deal

The agreement is highly political, because the Taiwanese government said it had tried unsuccessfully to order vaccines from BioNTech and blamed the Chinese government for the failure. Taiwan did not want to import the BioNTech vaccine through its Chinese contract partner out of concern that it might not be of the same quality. Foxconn founder Gou said the Chinese government had no influence on the current contract negotiations.

Taiwan has only received around two million doses of vaccine to date, but the United States and Japan in particular have donated almost another five million doses. After a brief increase, the number of infections in Taiwan is currently very low again. Recently, only 24 new infections were reported. However, the country is lagging behind when it comes to vaccination.