GlaxoSmithKline, one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world, inked a letter of intent to work with Academia Sinica on a research project to investigate the underlying genetic basis of five major diseases common to Taiwan, the organizations said yesterday in Taipei.
This is the first pure research initiative announced between a major multinational drug firm and a Taiwanese research institute.
"Collaborations with international organizations are very important to Academia Sinica and to Taiwan," said Lee Yuan-tseh (李遠哲), president of Academia Sinica and a Nobel Laureate. "We hope that the collaboration between our two organizations will help to strengthen genetics research and the overall development of biotechnology in Taiwan."
The diseases these organizations plan to focus research on include type II diabetes, heart disease and asthma. The collaboration is also expected to stimulate additional opportunities in Taiwan for genomic, genetic and bioinformatics applications and development.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) spends around US$4 billion on research every year, and although a final plan still needs to be laid out, some of this budget should find its way to Taiwan for this venture, according to Andrew Witty, the company's Asia Pacific regional director.
"Discussions are still ongoing as to who does what ... clearly it's going to involve some degree of GSK advising on the technology choices and guiding the Academia on the approach to take, as well as the Academia then collaborating with Taiwanese medical centers on information and data," Witty said.
Witty said there were many reasons Taiwan was chosen for this project, but one of the keys was guanxi, or personal connections.
Allen Roses, the senior vice president of genetics research at GlaxoSmithKline, used to work with the Academia Sinica's director of biomedical sciences, Chen Yuan-tsong (
The government's recent work to improve rules governing the local pharmaceutical market also helped, as it pushes to become a biotech powerhouse in Asia.
"We see in the Taiwan government a very sincere commitment to want to build up health care, biomedical sciences as an industry and as a focus area for economic activity -- and that again makes Taiwan an increasingly attractive place to do this kind of research," Witty said.
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