Fosun will sell 10 million doses of vaccine to Taiwan

On the night on July 11th, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical co., LTD., according to the announcement the company subsidiary Fosun Industrial respectively with TSMC, Foxconn Technology Group, Yongling Foundation and Zuellig Pharma sign the sales agreement, Fosun industrial to TSMC, Foxconn Yongling Foundation commissioned Zuellig sales totaling 10 million doses of mRNA new vaccines, the vaccine will be donated by the buyer to the disease control agency in Taiwan for local vaccination. Foxconn founder Terry Gou confirmed on Monday that China had no guidance or interference in the vaccine procurement process during the negotiations.

The parties to the deal have drawn up a preliminary supply plan, but the implementation of the deal is subject to conditions such as approval for local use of the vaccine and completion of donations, the statement said. In addition, the supply schedule is influenced by factors such as vaccine production and supply chain capacity, and the Group’s vaccine supply costs are related to production costs, total supply in the Licensed Territory and other factors, which are still uncertain. Therefore, the impact of the transaction on the Group’s turnover in 2021 is not yet certain.

Terry Gou, Foxconn’s founder, said in a Facebook post at 1:30 am on Monday that he was glad to finally give the public an answer that the relevant contracts had been signed, but he could not relax. He said he still had to work hard to get the delivery time and quantity faster. Stressing that the vaccines were delivered directly from the original German factory, he said: “During the negotiation period after the donation, there was no guidance or interference from the mainland authorities in Beijing in the procurement process of the vaccines. We would like to thank you for allowing the procurement to be carried out in the nature of the negotiations on commercial terms.”

The Taiwanese government has been trying for months to buy vaccines directly from German Biotech company and has accused Beijing of cancelling an agreement, which the two sides had been due to sign earlier this year, British media reported. Beijing denies the accusation.

Faced with public pressure over alleged slow progress on the vaccine, Taiwan’s government last month authorized Foxconn’s billionaire founder, Terry Gou, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing to negotiate on Taiwan’s behalf.

Before Shanghai Fosun Pharma made the announcement, Facebook circulated a report and screenshots purports to be from the Chinese official media Xinhua News Agency, claiming that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing and Foxconn had signed a purchase contract with Fosun Pharma, CNA reported. However, the Central News Agency and some media verified that Xinhua did not publish the report, leaving the unidentified report and screenshots subject to speculation.

It is understood that in addition to this procurement contract, the logistics, cold chain, transfer, donation and other links after the supply also need to sign relevant contracts. At the same time, the vaccines will be re-labeled by TSMC and Foxconn, and there will be no “Fupitai” as the Chinese name for the vaccines.

However, Fosun Pharma, as expected, stressed in its announcement that the vaccines would be donated by the buyer to “Taiwan’s regional disease control agency” for local vaccination. In March 2020, the company won a license from Biontech (BNT) to “exclusively develop and commercialize the vaccine in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan,” the company said.