Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said Wednesday that Taiwan will not import any COVID-19 vaccine manufactured in China. That’s amid questions over a recent announcement by Taiwan’s TTY Biopharm that it has the distribution rights to a COVID-19 vaccine by German firm BioNTech.
Some media outlets report that BioNTech has cooperated with China’s Fosun Pharma. TTY Biopharm released a statement on Tuesday saying that BioNTech is a German company which has a Chinese ownership of only 0.7%.
The Central Epidemic Command Center says that Fosun Pharma has the distribution rights of BioNTech for Asia, which could explain why it has shares in the company. The company’s vaccine, however, is not from China.
At the Legislature on Wednesday, Health Minister Chen Shih-chung said that TTY Biopharm will need to clarify the relationship between BioNTech and Fosun Pharma.