The Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (Taiwan CDC) firmly stated that, in response to the pandemic (H1N1) 2009, the government has been actively contacting vaccine manufacturers to seek the best purchase proposal since May, 2009 instead of waiting to be approached by vaccine manufacturers as reported.

During the second meeting held by the Central Epidemic Command Center (CECC) on April 30, 2009, Premier of the Executive Yuan Liu instructed the purchase of approved vaccine at a reasonable price.On May 4, 2009, CECC established a vaccine task force to monitor the progress of the international efforts in pandemic influenza A (H1N1) vaccine development and explore the availability of the vaccine. Further, the vaccine task force attended a cross-national teleconferenced organized by the World Health Organization-International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Association (WHO-IFPMA).On May 5, 2009, Director of Taiwan CDC Kuo invited five domestic and international vaccine manufacturers, including Novartis, Baxter International Inc., GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Sanofi-Aventis, and ADImmune Corporation to attend the procurement conference for vaccine purchasing.On June 11, 2009, WHO raised the level of influenza pandemic alert to phase 6. Immediately, Taiwan CDC promulgated the bidding process for procurement of the first batch of vaccine to expedite the vaccine purchase.

In light of the threats posed by a potential influenza A (H1N1) pandemic in this fall and winter, the government has been in active contact with international vaccine manufacturers, inquiring the availability of vaccine for pandemic influenza A (H1N1). On the other hand, the pharmaceutical unit in Taiwan has been in touch with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to seek guidance on registration for vaccine approval in order to assist domestic vaccine manufacturers in producing the vaccine and provide safe vaccine for the people in Taiwan.