Foxconn Technology Group founder and chairman, Terry Gou, speaks during a news conference after his trip to the U.S., in Taipei, Taiwan May 6, 2019. REUTERS/Tyrone Siu
TAIPEI, June 18 (Reuters) – Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan’s Foxconn (2317.TW), sought government permission on Friday to negotiate with a Chinese firm to source supplies of BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) COVID-19 vaccines and alleviate a shortage of doses.
Taiwan’s own deal with BioNTech fell through this year, with the government blaming it on pressure from Beijing.
China has denied the accusation, saying Taiwan is free to obtain the vaccines through Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (600196.SS), which has a contract with BioNTech to sell the vaccines in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan.
Taiwan says it has and will only deal with BioNTech in Germany as it does not trust vaccines from China, but is also happy to discuss Gou’s proposed purchase so long as he can prove BioNTech has vaccines it is willing to sell to Taiwan.
Gou listed his proposals in an open letter to President Tsai Ing-wen.
“Agree to our donation contract and enter into discussions on substantive details, and also agree to our proposed contract structure diagram for the procurement from Germany’s BioNTech (Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical as the agent), manufactured in and shipped from Germany,” he said.
Gou, who wants to donate 5 million BioNTech doses to the government through his charity, said he wanted to meet Tsai to discuss the proposal and that he had “absolutely no political or commercial intentions in this matter”.
The presidential office said Tsai was always happy to talk with Gou.
“We hope that the government and the private sector will work together to obtain more vaccine supplies for Taiwan,” said spokesman Xavier Chang.
But a senior government official told Reuters it was still waiting for Gou to get a “delivery assurance from the original manufacturer” to confirm that it had vaccines and could supply them. Gou has yet to provide this, the official said.
Gou said by making the purchase and donation known internationally, the government does not need to worry about the issue of trusting the vaccines.
His spokesperson Amanda Liu told reporters that Gou had had talks with “all partners” on the vaccine purchase idea, and had proposed signing a deal with Fosun’s Swiss or Hong Kong branches to avoid political problems.
Liu declined to comment on details of their purchase talks, citing commercial confidentiality.
Only around 5% of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people have received at least one of the two-shot coronavirus vaccine regimen. The government has millions of doses on order which have been held up by global shortages and has come under pressure to get more as domestic cases spike.
Another 240,000 Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) doses will arrive in Taiwan later on Friday.
Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said on Wednesday he believed Gou was working hard to get the BioNTech shots, but that most major vaccine firms are only dealing with countries.
Neither BioNTech nor Fosun immediately responded to requests for comment.
Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan
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