On August 2, the Kuomintang (KMT) delivered a statement of supplementary grounds at the Taipei District Prosecutor’s Office against the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in a criminal complaint previously filed by Johnny Chiang related to the controversial emergency use authorization (EUA) of domestically manufactured Medigen coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines. The KMT hopes that the delivery of the supplementary grounds will allow the prosecutors to expedite the investigation into the case.
The KMT alleges that MOHW Minister Chen Shih-chung and FDA Director-General Wu Hsiu-mei were profiteering and unjustly enriching Medigen Vaccine Biologics (MVC) Corporation under Article 6, Section 1, of the Anti-Corruption Act.
Chairman Chiang stressed that the government needs to ensure the basic health and safety of the people. Taiwan’s Medigen vaccine is the world’s first coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine officially approved using immuno-bridging, even before completing third-phase clinical trials.
Chairman Johnny Chiang thanked former Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-pin and former Minister of Health Yang Chih-liang for standing up on behalf of the people and requesting that the court suspend the Medigen vaccine’s EUA.
According to the submitted complaint, while the vaccine was still in the developmental stage in May, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration signed a contract totaling $4 billion NTD (approximately $144 million USD) to purchase five million doses without knowing the vaccine’s efficacy. In the short term, people who are inoculated with the Medigen vaccine, which lacks international certification, will be unable to visit relatives, travel, study abroad or engage in business activities in other countries.
According to the complaint, Minister Chen and Director-General Wu were well-aware that the defective rate of the Medigen vaccine was as high as 82 percent, but still granted its EUA. On the other hand, the officials stated in public that Taiwan had already obtained 6 million doses of vaccines, so there was no urgency to accept vaccine donations from private parties. Officials approved the EUA of the Medigen vaccine when its safety and efficacy had not been determined.
The KMT hopes that the Administrative Court can support the demands of former Mayor Hau and former Minister Yang that the Medigen vaccine should not be administered to the people without rigorous scientific evidence and international certification of the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, so as to protect the public health.
