TAIWAN VACCINE DIPLOMACY OVERRATED

C O N F I D E N T I A L TAIPEI 004404 SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/RSP/TC, G, OES/IHA STATE FOR AIT/W E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/20/2010 TAGS: TBIO AMED SENV CASC ECON TW WHO SUBJECT: TAIWAN VACCINE DIPLOMACY OVERRATED REF: TAIPEI 04295 Classified By: AIT DIRECTOR DOUGLAS PAAL, REASON 1.5 B/D ¶1. (C) As reported in Ref A, on Oct. 17, 2005, Michael Kao, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs announced that Taiwan was preparing to propose at next month's APEC summit in Busan, South Korea to produce and distribute avian flu vaccine to APEC countries. This is part of a series of moves by Taiwan to gain visibility and international credibility by assisting countries in health-related matters. This dovetails with their attempt to become a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Health Assembly (WHA). As Vice Minister Kao was reported to have said in the Taiwan media "China hasn't been able to make any public protest due to the scope and severity of the disease...We certainly will make good use of this opportunity, which might help Taiwan make a breakthrough in international participation." 2 (C) The timing of the announcement suggests that scoring political points is at least part of the reason for Taiwan's vaccine proposal. AIT has learned that Taiwan currently has no vaccine production capability and is years away from having the facilities or technical expertise to produce flu vaccines. AIT ECONOFF spoke with longtime contact Hsu Yu-chen, research assistant in the Planning Division at Taiwan's Center for Disease Control (CDC). Hsu said that in November 2004, the Executive Yuan committed NT$6 billion to spearhead an effort to manufacture vaccines in Taiwan on a commercial scale. The plan calls for NT$4billion to be spent on a flu vaccine plant in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Taiwan expects to gain the technical expertise to manufacture vaccines by partnering with a foreign pharmaceutical company. The foreign company will also be expected to invest in the plant. Hsu said "GlaxoSmithKline is a possible partner but we are going to have an open bidding process sometime next year before we select the foreign partner." ¶3. (C) The "Flu Vaccine Self Production Plan" envisions Taiwan producing flu vaccines on a commercial scale in four to five years. The first step of the plan is for Taiwan's two vaccine labs, one operated by the CDC and another operated by the National Health Research Institute, to combine into one lab and be relocated to Hsinchu. Hsu estimates that, at the earliest, Taiwan will be ready to produce flu vaccines in three to four years. PAAL