Investments in Taiwan's biotechnology-related industry is expected to grow 15 percent to NT$25 billion this year, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The growth is in line with the Cabinet's plan to attract a total of NT$100 billion investment in biotech between 2002 and 2007 and to double production output to NT$250 billion.
"Investment was boosted by a total of 91 new local and foreign investors in biotechnological medicine, medical equipment, agricultural technology, cosmetics and nanotechnology," Wang Shu-hui, (
According to Wang, the investment for the first 10 months of this year already climbed to NT$23.49 billion from NT$19.42 billion a year earlier.
Wang attributed the rapid growth to the establishment of several large biotechnology funds, including a NT$2.5 billion investment raised by a joint venture fund between China Development Financial Holding Corp (中華開發金控) and the Cabinet's Development Fund (開發基金). Another fund, Fortune Athena Biotech Fund (瑞銀生化基金), brought in NT$1.4 billion.
Other small and medium-sized investments, including NT$1 billion from ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd (台灣神隆) and NT$1 billion from state-run Taiwan Sugar Corp (Taisugar, 台糖), were made in the fields of medical research as well as cosmetics.
Several US biotech companies including Epicyte Pharmaceutical Inc, Genemed Biotechnologies Inc, Ancile Pharmaceuticals Inc and Corgentech Inc, have poured NT$3.07 billion into Taiwan's biotech industry in the last few years, according to Industrial Development Bureau.
Despite reportedly high growth in the sector, several pundits warned of serious hurdles blocking the road to Taiwan's biotech development.
The biggest problem, said John Yang (
Taisugar, a state-run enterprise, is allocating NT$20 million each year cooperative projects with Academia Sinica and the Biomedical Engineering Center at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院).
"We are having difficulty transferring [their] innovations into concrete product ideas," he said.
Biologists have begun to encourage local biotech professionals to pool their findings with foreign firms to keep ahead of the technology race.
Chen Yih-ming (
Kuo Shu-shyang (郭書祥), professor of the Development Center for Biotechnology (生物技術開 發中心), said that Taiwan's burgeoning biotech businesses are already lagging behind other countries and only by cooperating with other international businesses can they skip the "learning phrase."
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure