News
Government to purchase 10 million doses of locally-made vaccines
Courtesy of ICRT
The Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) says the government has signed contracts with two domestic companies to purchase a total of 10 million coronavirus vaccine doses.
According to CECC) spokesman Zhuang Ren-xiang, the Centers for Disease Control has inked contracts with Medigen and United Biomedical to buy five million vaccine doses from each company.
Zhuang says the contracts are flexible, allowing the government to purchase up to 10 million doses from each of the two companies, if the need arises.
The Medigen and United Biomedical vaccines are still in second-stage clinical trials.
However, the companies have said they plan to apply in June for emergency use authorisation. Both vaccines require two doses.
Health minister Chen Shih-chung says he is confident that Taiwan will have stable vaccine supplies by the end of the year.
Lawmakers have questioned Chen about the pace of the government's vaccination programme.
Chen says it may take until October to get one shot to 60% of the adult population, if supplies are sufficient.
