Adimmune spokesman Kao Sheng-kai made the declaration after a tender held by the Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH) earlier in the day for 5 million doses of the vaccine failed because only Adimmune submitted a bid.

The law governing governmental tenders requires that at least three companies submit bids for a tender to be valid.

The DOH, however, will open a second tender next week that according to the Government Procurement Act will not require a minimum number of bidders or a preset price range, said DOH Centers for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Lin Ding.

Kao stated that the company, also known as Kuo Kwang Biotechnology Company, intends to vie for the business and become the government's main supplier of the vaccine.

Foreign suppliers, already unable to meet demand in international markets and unlikely to be able to comply with the government's targeted October delivery date, have not shown any desire to participate in tenders for the A(H1N1) vaccine.

Kao said the price of the vaccine against the flu that has spread around the world has been on the rise thanks to increasing demand, including the U.S. requirement of some 600 million doses.

Citing Novartis AG as an example, Kao said the Switzerland-based drug company sold the vaccine at between US$8 and US$10 per dose to early buyers but has been offering it at more than US$10 per dose more recently.

Adimmune general manager Ignatius Wei anticipated that the company's price for the vaccine would be below US$10 per dose, but Kao said Friday that the final price will be decided by the company's board of directors.

According to the DOH, the government had planned to purchase the vaccine at a price of NT$200 (US$6) per dose, but it will be allowed to raise its purchase price in the second tender.

According to the only private human vaccine manufacturing company in Taiwan, it has purchased 8 million chicken eggs to produce the human vaccine against A(H1N1) using chicken embryos.

Kao indicated that the company has begun the process of producing more than 1.5 doses from one egg, and he estimated that Adimmune could produce between 7.5 million and 10 million doses of the vaccine with its available egg stocks.

The DOH plans to purchase 10 million doses of the A(H1N1) virus vaccine, 5 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine, and 900,000 doses of the antiviraldrug Relenza this year to strengthen its anti-pandemic arsenal, Lin said.

So far, the DOH has secured 2.28 million doses of vaccine against seasonal flu, including 400,000 doses for children, Lin said.