Taiwan tech giants Foxconn and TSMC to buy 10m Covid jabs
Taiwanese firms Foxconn, which makes devices for Apple, and chip giant TSMC brokered the agreements for the BioNTech vaccine, worth $350m (£252m).
The agreements will see Foxconn and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) buy five million doses of the vaccine each and donate them to the government for distribution.
Fosun Pharma's chairman and chief executive Wu Yifang said they would "work closely with our partners to provide safe and effective vaccines to Taiwan at an early date".
Foxconn's billionaire founder and chairman Terry Gou wrote on his Facebook page that Beijing did not interfere with the talks.
BioNTech developed the mRNA vaccine, which is marketed as Comirnaty, in collaboration with the US pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer.
Separately, the US and Japan have donated a total of almost five million Covid vaccine doses to Taiwan to help the island accelerate its vaccination programme.
