TSMC and Foxconn sign on dotted line to buy 10 million Pfizer vaccines for Taiwan Foxconn and TSMC have inked a procurement deal with Pfizer distributor Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group for 10 million vaccines on behalf of Taiwan, a plan approved by the Taiwanese government late last month. Taiwan's Overseas Community Affairs Council said statements were released by the two Apple suppliers on Sunday …
So, it's worked out pretty much as I predicted when this story originally came up a while ago. TSMC and Foxconn buy from Biontech's authorized distributor Fosun and everybody goes away happy.
The original problem was that the Taiwanese government had been relying on buying the AstraZeneca vaccine for half of their supply, but haven't been able to get delivery from Europe, the US, or India, although they got a small shipment from South Korea. They had planned on buying a quarter of their supply from Moderna but couldn't get delivery from the US or Europe for that either.
That left Biontech for the remaining quarter, but the Taiwanese government refused to deal with the authorized manufacturer and distributor for the region, Fosun, because they are a Chinese company.
So, TSMC and Foxconn, who don't care about the politics of the situation just hand over the money and get the vaccine.
From the timing it looks like the vaccine will come from Fosun's own plant, which is starting up around that time.
Biontech developed the vaccine but didn't have production facilities of their own. They signed a partnership with Fosun to cover China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and a separate partnership with Pfizer to cover the rest of the world (although it's possible that there may be other regional partnerships that I don't know about). Biontech now have their own production facilities in Europe but their partners Fosun and Pfizer will still have distribution and manufacturing rights in their respective territories.
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