The government on Tuesday dismissed as “groundless” suggestions that the high prices paid in the procurement of COVID-19 vaccines could be a sign of corruption, involving former Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) head Chen Shih-chung (陳時中).
Chen is currently running as the candidate of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in the upcoming election for Taipei mayor, which will be held on Nov. 26.
A range of factors affected the price of COVID-19 vaccines purchased by different countries, CECC spokesperson Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said Tuesday, responding to a report in the Chinese-language newspaper China Times.
Among the factors involved were how many doses of a vaccine a country bought, the timing of the order, and whether it is a low-and middle-income country, Chuang told a press conference.
China Times ran a front-page article on Tuesday, which alleged that the money Taiwan’s government spent acquiring 53.51 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines was over NT$7 billion (US$223 million) higher than the global average.
The report estimated that purchases of the various brands of COVID-19 vaccine, including Moderna, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BNT, and Medigen, made directly by the government from the vaccine manufacturers or through the COVAX global sharing scheme initiated by the World Health Organization cost NT$33.54 billion.
China Times cited BioSpace, an American online website for biotech industry and public statements by the CECC as its sources of how much the vaccines cost.
According to BioSpace, individual doses of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine were priced globally at about US$2.15 to US$5.25, while Chen told lawmakers in March that Taiwan bought the AstraZeneca vaccine at about US$5 and US$7 per dose, the newspaper noted.
The NT$40.86 billion spent purchasing the vaccines, disclosed by the CECC on Aug. 22, showed that unusually high prices were being paid for the medication, the newspaper said.
That suggests the possibility of kickbacks in purchasing decisions made by Chen as head of the CECC, said Wang Jen-hsien (王任賢), president of Taiwan Counter Contagious Diseases Society and a commentator.
Chuang strongly refuted the “groundless” allegation because it was a “grave slander” against the Centers for Disease Control.
Meanwhile, DPP Legislator Kuo Kuo-wen (郭國文) said there were no clearly applicable benchmarks for COVID-19 vaccine prices because contracts for the procurement of such vaccines are protected for reasons of confidentiality.
The confidentiality of such contracts will be accepted by the public as long as procurement is handled in accordance with related laws and regulations, Kuo told a separate press conference.
In late August, the CECC was forced to reveal that the procurement of vaccines had cost about NT$40.86 billion, without providing details, following criticism by opposition Kuomintang (KMT) lawmakers of the the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s (MOHW) decision to seal the information for 30 years.
Speaking in defense of the decision, Chen, who stepped down as minister of health and CECC head in July to focus on his Taipei mayoral campaign, said previously that the cost of the vaccines is covered by a confidentiality clause in the contracts.
Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安), KMT candidate in the Taipei mayoral race, has described the contracts for the procurement of vaccines as Chen’s “Achilles heel” and suggested Chen “must have a skeleton in his closet” relating to the contracts.
KMT lawmakers have urged the MOHW to fully disclose the per-dose price for each vaccine brand and vowed to boycott the ministry’s budget request for fiscal year 2023 in the new legislative session, which begins Friday, if it refuses to do so.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel