TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said Tuesday (Jan. 16) that COVID-19 vaccine producer Medigen Vaccine Biologics Corporation had agreed to end the confidentiality of its contract with the government prematurely after criticism.
In the run-up to the Jan. 13 elections, opposition politicians renewed their accusations against the deal, alleging a lack of transparency and excessively high prices for the purchase of the vaccine in 2021. At a special news conference Tuesday, the CDC denied that there was an agreement to keep the contract secret for 30 years, instead saying the confidentiality period was five years, per the Liberty Times.
Due to the criticism, the Medigen board had agreed to make the content of the contract public. The contract mentioned a total price tag of NT$4.03 billion (US$128 million) for 5 million vaccine doses, UDN reported.
CDC Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang (莊人祥) said the agreement between the government and Medigen did not contain anything that could not see the light of day. The Control Yuan, Taiwan’s top government watchdog, the National Audit Office, and prosecutors had reviewed the issue and found no grounds for prosecution, he said.
After the Medigen board voted on Tuesday at noon to make the details public, the CDC agreed to go ahead with its news conference, even though it was a common business practice to respect the confidentiality period, according to Chuang.