(Reuters) – US drugmaker Moderna Inc. will supply its COVID-19 vaccine to the governments of Taiwan and Colombia, the company has provided five million and ten million doses respectively.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine has not yet been approved for use in Taiwan or Colombia, and the company’s statement said it will work with regulators to pursue the necessary pre-distribution approvals.
Delivery is expected to begin in mid-2021, the company added.
In late December, Taiwan said it had agreed to buy nearly 20 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, including 10 million from British drugmaker AstraZeneca, while the rest came from the COVAX global vaccination program and an unnamed company.
Taiwan had not previously announced the Moderna Agreement and kept details of its vaccine plans largely under scrutiny, citing commercial confidentiality.
Chinese Health Minister Chen Shih-chung told reporters that the vaccines, which are to be administered with two shots 28 days apart, are expected to start arriving around May or June, with a $ 5.05 million deal doses.
“We will strive to get them to provide this as quickly as possible,” Chen said Wednesday.
This week, the Taiwanese government said it would also receive 200,000 doses of COVAX’s AstraZeneca vaccine, with shots likely to begin next month.
The government has tried to reassure its people that it is working hard to ensure access to vaccines and that it is also developing vaccines domestically, although at a slower pace.
However, officials have also indicated that with the pandemic under control in Taiwan, there is no urgent need for vaccines facing some other countries. There are currently only 73 active cases being treated in the hospital.
Germany last week called on Taiwan for its assistance in delivering COVID-19 vaccines. Berlin had earlier asked the Asian technology power station to lighten a semiconductor supply in the automotive industry, which could potentially cause China’s anger.
The vaccine supply is strict anyway.
(Reporting by Kanishka Singh in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei; editing by Lincoln Feast and David Goodman)