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Coronavirus: Taiwan says talks to buy Pfizer-BioNTech child vaccine held up over Chinese sales rights
- Taiwan sales rights for the child version of the vaccine belong not to producer Pfizer but to BioNTech and its Chinese sales agent, Fosun Pharma
- The island has authorised the Moderna vaccine for children aged six to 11
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Talks on Taiwan buying the child version of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine have stalled as Pfizer does not have the right to sell it, and BioNTech and its Chinese partner do not make it, a Taiwanese minister said.
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The sales rights for the vaccine in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan belong to BioNTech and its Chinese sales agent, Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (Fosun Pharma), which snarled a deal for the main version of the vaccine last year after Taiwan accused Beijing of political interference, which Beijing denied.
The vaccines were later purchased after Taipei allowed chip maker TSMC, a Buddhist charity and Terry Gou – the billionaire founder of Foxconn, a supplier to Apple Inc – to buy them on the government’s behalf.
Taiwanese health minister Chen Shih-chung said the problem now was that only Pfizer makes the version of the shot for children, but it does not have the right to sell it to Taiwan. That right lies with BioNTech and Fosun.
“Pfizer makes and bottles the smaller child version of the vaccine. BioNTech does not have this delivery method,” Chen said on Monday.
“But Pfizer does not have the sales rights for China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. So that has complicated the contract.”
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Chen said he did not see “outside interference” in the talks and the government was trying to come up with a contract with all parties involved.
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