Government denies Gou accusations on handling of failed vaccine deal
ROC Central News Agency
05/10/2023 06:59 PM
Taipei, May 10 (CNA) The government on Wednesday denied a claim by business tycoon Terry Gou (郭台銘) that Taiwan's planned purchase of Pfizer-BioNTech (BNT) COVID-19 vaccines in early 2021 was blocked because of how Taiwan was to be described in the sale's announcement.
In a statement issued Tuesday night by Gou's office, the deal fell through because Taiwan's government insisted on being called the "Independent Government of Taiwan" in the public announcement of the purchase of the vaccines.
The statement alluded to an email Gou received from a German contact, identified as a major BioNTech shareholder, who wrote that he spoke to BioNTech Chairman Helmut Jeggle, which the writer identified as "Helmut Jäckle."
The writer confirmed that an agreement was negotiated between BioNTech and Taiwanese government.
"The only reason why this agreement has not been implemented, according to Helmut, was because the Taiwanese government insisted that in the public announcement about this agreement it is stated that this agreement is between BioNTech and the INDEPENDENT Government of Taiwan," the email read.
Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical (Group) Co., the distributor of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in the Greater China area, denied the request and the deal was canceled as a result, according to the email.
Taiwan's Centers for Disease Control (CDC) denied the claim early Wednesday morning in a statement, presenting an email from BioNTech and an attached planned press release dated Jan. 0, 2021 to rebut the claims of Gou's office.
The email showed the German company objecting to the use of the phrase "our country" (我國) in the Chinese headline and Chinese text of the CDC's proposed press release, though the term "country" did not appear in the English version.
"The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) secured supply to our country of 5 million COVID-19 vaccine doses from the German biotechnology company BioNTech on January 0, 2021," the Chinese text read, the "0" indicating a not yet determined date.
The CDC attached another email on Jan. 9, 2021, showing that it revised the Chinese content, changing "our country" to "Taiwan," and that the revisions were accepted by BioNTech, but the deal collapsed within a week.
According to the CDC, contract negotiations stalled after BioNTech suddenly requested on Jan. 15, 2021 to re-evaluate the amount of vaccines and adjust the schedule of the deal.
Taiwan has accused China of interfering in the transaction and blocking the deal.
The issue has emerged as a hot topic as Gou, the founder of electronics manufacturing services giant Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., tries to secure the presidential nomination of the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) in part by criticizing the government's handling of vaccine purchases in 2021, when they were hard to acquire.
Gou has accused Taiwan's government of blocking his attempt in May 2021 to buy 1.5 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.
The Presidential Office reiterated in a statement Wednesday that the government never obstructed efforts by the private sector to buy vaccines from BioNTech.
Gou reiterated his claim of being blocked by the government from buying the BNT vaccines in a Facebook post Tuesday, and said it was former Presidential Secretary-General David Lee (李大維) who relayed a message from President Tsai telling him not to buy the vaccines.
Lee has denied the allegations, saying the conversation never happened.
The former head of the CECC, Victor Wang (王必勝), confirmed that the June 16, 2021 email from the BioNTech shareholder was "real," and that Gou knew from it that he could not buy vaccines as an individual.
"Since BioNTech and Fosu are not allowed to sell to anybody else other than a government body, there does not seem to be a workable solution," the email said, in response to Gou's interest in buying the vaccines.
In the end, Taiwan bought 15 million vaccines from BioNTech in July 2021 through the support of three organizations, including a foundation affiliated with Gou's Hon Hai.
(By Chen Chieh-ling, Shen Pei-yao, Liu Kuan-ting and Evelyn Kao)
Enditem/ls
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
