Tag Archives: COMDIS

Business

TSMC, Foxconn say they are in process of signing deal for BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines

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Syringes with the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines to be administered against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) lie on a tray during a program without an appointment in Sant Vicenc de Casteller, north of Barcelona, Spain, July 6, 2021. REUTERS/ Albert Gea

TAIPEI, July 11 (Reuters) – Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW)and Foxconn said on Sunday they were in the middle of the contract signing process to buy COVID-19 vaccines from Germany’s BioNTech SE (22UAy.DE), part of a drawn out and highly politicised process for Taiwan to access the shot.

Taiwan’s government has tried for months to buy the vaccine directly from BioNTech and has blamed China, which claims the self-ruled island as its own territory, for nixing a deal the two sides were due to sign earlier this year. China denies the accusations.

Last month, facing public pressure about the slow pace of Taiwan’s inoculation programme, the government agreed to allow Terry Gou, the billionaire founder of Taiwan’s Foxconn (2317.TW), as well as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC) to negotiate on its behalf for the vaccines, which would be donated to Taiwan’s government for distribution.

“There are multiple parties. We are in the middle of the contract signing process. We will make announcements once the process is completed,” TSMC said a statement.

Foxconn used almost exactly the same wording in a separate statement. Neither elaborated.

Both companies are major Apple Inc (AAPL.O) suppliers.

BioNTech and Fosun did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Gou’s spokesperson said: “When there is further news, we will formally explain it to the outside world”. She gave no details.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Premier Su Tseng-chang would only say that talks for the vaccine were ongoing.

“Once there is an definite outcome, we’ll naturally report it to everyone.”

A source briefed on the matter told Reuters that contract talks were “not yet 100% complete”, while another source said while they were close to finalising the deal, uncertainties remained.

“It has become increasingly clear that it is not the Taiwan side who is complicating the signing of the contract,” the second source said, referring to extra “obstacles” set up by Beijing.

China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not answer calls seeking comment outside of business hours on Sunday.

FOSUN CONTRACT

Gou and TSMC this month reached an initial agreement with a subsidiary of Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd (600196.SS), which has a contract with BioNTech to sell the COVID-19 vaccines in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, sources told Reuters previously. read more

Both Gou and TSMC are seeking 5 million doses each.

The BioNTech vaccine drama has transfixed Taiwan and dominated headlines. A major Taiwanese Buddhist group, the Tzu Chi Foundation, is also trying to buy the shots, which were developed jointly with Pfizer (PFE.N). read more

China’s government has repeatedly said that if Taiwan wants the vaccine, it has to respect commercial rules and do it through Fosun.

Germany’s government has also been involved, saying it has been helping in the direct talks between Taiwan and BioNTech.

Taiwan has millions of vaccines on order, mainly from AstraZeneca Plc (AZN.L) and Moderna Inc (MRNA.O), while the United States and Japan have together donated almost five million doses to the island to help speed up vaccinations.

Around one-tenth of Taiwan’s 23.5 million people have received at least one of the two-shot regimen, though Taiwan’s own relatively small domestic coronavirus outbreak is now largely under control.

Reporting by Ben Blanchard and Yimou Lee; Additional reporting by Taipei newsroom, and Andrew Galbraith in Shanghai; Editing by Lincoln Feast and William Mallard

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

South Korea considers reimposing restrictions as COVID-19 cases surge

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  • S.Korea reports 1,212 new daily cases
  • Movement restrictions extended in Seoul
  • Officials warn tougher curbs could be reinstated
  • Delta variant being fuelled by young and unvaccinated

SEOUL, July 7 (Reuters) – South Korea reported its second highest number of daily new COVID-19 cases ever on Wednesday, just days after it began easing social distancing restrictions in some parts of the country, buoyed by an accelerated vaccine rollout.

With the majority of the 1,212 new cases coming from densely populated Seoul, officials extended movement curbs in the capital and surrounding regions for at least another week and are considering pushing restrictions back up to the highest level.

Prime Minister Kim Boo-kyum said the country’s fourth wave of the virus, fuelled by the highly contagious Delta variant, was spreading rapidly, especially among unvaccinated people in their 20s and 30s.

Kim urged people in that demographic to get tested preemptively “to protect not just yourself, but everyone in your family, friends, school and the country.”

“If the situation is not under control after monitoring for two to three days, it might leave us with no choice but to impose the strictest of all social distancing levels,” Kim said.

President Moon Jae-in ordered the military be mobilized to aid wider contact tracing and urged authorities to install additional testing centres in densely populated areas, presidential spokeswoman Park Kyung-mee told reporters on Wednesday.

The daily caseload was the worst since Dec. 25, when South Korea was experiencing a third wave of the pandemic.

Officials had been moving in recent weeks toward a full reopening of the country. Movement restrictions in much of the country were eased on July 1, although officials in greater Seoul held off as they watched case numbers beginning to creep up again. read more

Health experts said the relaxation of measures that restricted business operating hours and social gatherings outside of Seoul, along with the knowledge that further easings would be coming, led to public complacency, particularly in socially mobile younger people in the capital.

Around 85% of the new locally transmitted cases were in the Seoul metropolitan area, which is home to more than half of the country’s population.

“While the infection rate has dropped relatively in the people aged over 60 on the back of inoculation drive, the transmission continues in the unvaccinated group,” said Kim Tark, associate professor of infectious disease at Soonchunhyang University Bucheon Hospital.

“It’s a reminder to speed up vaccination for people under 60.”

VACCINES ARRIVE

Just 10% of the country’s population of 52 million people have been fully vaccinated, while 30% have received at least one shot, the majority of them aged over 60.

The Korean Medical Association urged the government to refrain from any hasty decisions to ease social distancing policies with vaccinations at low levels.

The country received 700,000 doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine (PFE.N), (22UAy.DE) from Israel on Wednesday under a swap arrangement, along with a separate shipment of 627,000 directly purchased doses. read more

Some of the new supply will be sent to greater Seoul for inoculation programmes due to start on July 13, authorities said.

Improved vaccination levels have helped lower South Korea’s mortality rate to 1.25% and the number of severe cases to 155 as of Wednesday, down significantly from 1.41% and 311 cases reported during the previous peak in late December.

The country has reported a total of 162,753 infections and 2,033 deaths during the pandemic.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Jane Wardell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Health

EXCLUSIVE S.Korea in talks with mRNA vaccine makers to make up to 1 bln doses -govt official

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South Korean senior citizens receive their first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccine at a vaccination centre in Seoul, South Korea April 1, 2021. Chung Sung-Jun/Pool via REUTERS

SEOUL, July 5 (Reuters) – South Korea is in talks with mRNA vaccine makers including Pfizer (PFE.N) and Moderna (MRNA.O) to produce COVID-19 shots in the country and is ready to offer the capacity to make up to 1 billion doses immediately, a senior government official said.

The plan, if agreed, would help ease tight global supply of COVID-19 vaccines, particularly in Asia which lags North America and Europe in vaccine rollouts, and put South Korea a step closer to its ambition to become a major vaccine manufacturing centre.

South Korea already has deals to locally produce three coronavirus vaccines developed by AstraZeneca (AZN.L)/Oxford University, Novavax (NVAX.O), and Russia. It also has a vaccine bottling and packaging deal with Moderna.

“We’ve been holding frequent talks with big pharmaceutical companies to produce mRNA vaccines,” Lee Kang-ho, director general for the global vaccine hub committee under South Korea’s health ministry, told Reuters in an interview.

“There are only a few mRNA vaccine developers – Pfizer, Moderna, CureVac and BioNTech. Thus there’s a limit to how much they can produce to meet global demand… South Korea is keen to help by offering its facilities and skilled human resources,” Lee said.

It’s not immediately clear how advanced these talks are and whether and when a deal will be agreed.

BioNTech (22UAy.DE) declined to comment, Moderna and CureVac (5CV.DE) did not reply to Reuters’ requests for comments.

A Pfizer spokesperson said the company is making efforts to enhance its COVID-19 vaccine supply chain but added “we do not have anything specific to announce at this time.”

Lee declined to name local vaccine makers which have the capacity to produce mRNA vaccines immediately, but a government source said they include Hanmi Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd (128940.KS) and Quratis Co Ltd.

Hanmi confirmed that it has a big capacity reserved for Sanofi’s (SASY.PA) diabetes drug and it can be used for COVID-19 vaccine production as the Sanofi project has stalled.

“We happen to have this facility available right now because our clinical trial (with Sanofi) was discontinued in the middle of last year,” Kim Soo-jin, senior vice president of Hanmi, told Reuters.

“It’s very timely that we have a fully ready, GMP, state-of-the-art facility available,” she said, referring to good manufacturing practice.

Quratis, which makes a tuberculosis vaccine, said its new factory built last year can now be used for mRNA vaccine production.

Shares in Hanmi erased early losses and rose nearly 4% on Monday after the Reuters report.

COLLABORATION WITH WHO

South Korea has stepped up its effort to produce more vaccines since U.S. President Joe Biden in May agreed with South Korean President Moon Jae-in on a comprehensive partnership on COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said his team is having frequent video conference calls with the vaccine makers and the World Health Organization (WHO).

WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic told Reuters the organisation is “talking with South Korea and other countries,” but did not elaborate.

The WHO said last month it will set up a hub in South Africa to manufacture mRNA vaccines within 9-12 months that will give companies from poor and middle-income countries the know-how and licenses to produce COVID-19 vaccines. read more

Lee said mRNA vaccine makers may be reluctant to share their technology, but they can take advantage of South Korea’s raw material suppliers to address a global shortage of such ingredients as lipids, nucleotides and capping reagents.

“They’re capable of manufacturing and developing such raw materials to help vaccine makers… and the South Korean government is committed to provide all necessary support including financial and administrative aid.”

Lee said the country also has a capacity for at least another 500 million doses of fill-and-finish vaccines apart from the deal Moderna announced with Samsung BioLogics (207940.KS) in May.

Reporting by Sangmi Cha in Seoul; Additional reporting by Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva, Michael Erman in New York and Ludwig Burger in Frankfurt; Editing by Miyoung Kim and Raju Gopalakrishnan

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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World

Australia to halve arrivals from overseas, offers COVID-19 exit roadmap

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  • Australia to cut arrivals from overseas to 3,000 a week
  • NSW reports 31 new cases, biggest daily rise for 2021
  • Brisbane lockdown extended for another day

SYDNEY, July 2 (Reuters) – Australia will halve the number of arrivals from overseas as its coronavirus hotel quarantine system creaks under pressure from outbreaks of the highly transmissible Delta variant, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Friday.

The new restrictions on travel come as Australia fights outbreaks of the Delta variant simultaneously in three state capital cities, meaning nearly half of all Australians are currently under strict orders to stay at home. Most recent outbreaks have been traced to leaks in hotel quarantine.

Australia shut its international borders early last year largely to non-citizens. Permanent residents and returning Australian travellers, except those exiting New Zealand, have to quarantine in hotels for two weeks at their own expense.

Morrison said Australia will now only accept about 3,000 travellers from overseas per week. Lowering the cap will be finalised by July 14, he said, though some states can move earlier.

Speaking after a meeting of the country’s national cabinet, Morrison also said a four-phase plan had been agreed to reopen Australia after lockdowns triggered by the latest outbreaks. He said this would be based on achieving vaccination levels aimed at suppressing COVID-19 to a stage where it would be managed like other infectious diseases like the flu.

“Our mind-set on managing COVID-19 has to change once you move from pre-vaccination to post-vaccination. That’s the deal for Australians,” Morrison told reporters in Canberra.

The four-phased approach could give fully vaccinated people more freedoms, he said, including shorter quarantine period after arriving from overseas.

New South Wales (NSW) capital Sydney, Australia’s largest city and home to a fifth of the country’s 25 million population, is half-way through a two-week lockdown imposed in a bid to contain the Delta variant.

On Friday it warned residents to brace for an increase in COVID-19 infections over the next few days as it reported the biggest daily rise in locally acquired cases recorded so far this year.

Thirty-one local cases were reported in NSW on Friday, so far the biggest daily rise in cases during the latest outbreak and for 2021. Total infections have grown to more than 200 since the first case was detected more than two weeks ago.

“We are anticipating there could be an increase in numbers over the next few days, then hopefully early next week we should see the impact of the lockdown really turning and having a positive impact,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told reporters.

Queensland officials said lockdown rules will be eased in parts of Queensland from Friday, although they have been extended in state capital Brisbane and a neighbouring region for another day after three new cases were reported.

Lockdown in Darwin, the Northern Territory capital, will also be lifted on Friday. Restrictions in Perth will be reviewed later in the day.

Lockdowns, swift contact tracing and tough social distancing rules have helped Australia to suppress prior outbreaks, but the fast-moving Delta strain has alarmed authorities amid a sluggish nationwide vaccination drive.

The rollout, mired in confusion and frustration due to frequent changes in medical advice for the AstraZeneca (AZN.L) vaccine, has become a flashpoint in relations between the federal government and state leaders. read more

Reporting by Renju Jose; Editing by Kenneth Maxwell

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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