BioNTech had planned 5 million vaccines in Taiwan by July, diplomat says

TAIPEI, July 13 (Reuters) – BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE) had planned to send Taiwan five million doses of COVID-19 vaccine by July as part of an initial deal that collapsed in January Taipei’s top diplomat said in Berlin on Tuesday, detailing how the highly politicized deal fell apart.

Taiwan had been trying for months to get the vaccine from the German company, until Sunday the Chinese sales agent for BioNTech, which also has the right to sell the vaccine to the island, said it would sell 10 million doses to two Taiwanese tech giants after government said it could negotiate on its behalf. Read more

Taiwan blamed China for the failure of a direct deal with BioNTech in January, claims Beijing strongly denies.

Shieh Jhy-wey, Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to Berlin, said the original English-language press release that was to announce the Jan.6 deal mentioned that five million doses would have been delivered in batches by July.

But two days later, on January 8, Shieh said that a different person at BioNTech than the one they were previously communicating with started resending messages.

“English was mixed with simplified Chinese characters to demand that ‘our country’ be changed to ‘Taiwan’, and from there it all fell apart,” he added, writing on his Facebook page. and referring to the draft press release.

Simplified characters are used in China, while Taiwan uses traditional characters. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and strongly opposes any wording implying that the island is a country.

BioNTech did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Taiwanese Minister of Health Chen Shih-chung said in May, when the government first gave details of what had happened, that he had agreed to change the wording to “Taiwan”, but it was from then that the agreement was blocked. Read more

Shieh said his description of what happened “was of course” political interference. “

“But who? It goes without saying,” he added.

“However, during the whole process of coordination and negotiation behind the scenes, not only me, but also members of parliament and German officials felt strongly the great will and enthusiasm of the top management of BioNTech to provide vaccines. in Taiwan. “

Germany, like most countries, does not have official diplomatic relations with Taiwan.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Editing by Christopher Cushing

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