Taiwan's biotechnology industry is poised to cash in on drugs developed from traditional Chinese herbal remedies, experts said yesterday.
"In Taiwan, we are doing good research in Chinese herbal rem-edies, but now we need to commercialize," Winston Town (湯竣鈞), chief operating officer of herbal drug developer Cathay Biotech Co (中華公明生物科技), told the Taipei Times yesterday.
In order to turn research investments into big bucks, companies have to prove scientifically that Chinese herbal remedies work, and the only way to do that is to present them for approval to regulatory authorities in the US, Europe and Japan, Town said.
Taiwan is banking on biotechnology and other advanced industries to replace manufacturing that has now moved to low-cost China.
In May of last year, President Chen Shui-bian (
Exploiting the nation's cultural heritage could help biotech companies to produce their own uniquely Chinese drugs.
"Traditional Chinese medicine offers excellent opportunities for Taiwanese biotechnology companies," said Jerry Chen (
Only last Friday Chen's office hosted a business opportunities forum for companies interested in developing drugs from Chinese herbs, and over 100 people attended, Chen said.
The government has funded three research centers to look specifically at herb-based drugs, the Development Center for Biotechnology in Taipei, the Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center in Taipei County and the Biomedical Engineering Center at the Industrial Technology Research Institute in Hsinchu.
But research is not enough.
"There is a huge amount of potential for Taiwanese companies through herbal medicine," said David Silver, director of Biotech-east.com, a Web site that promotes Taiwan's biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries. "But there are problems with patentability and regulations."
Companies cannot claim a patent on naturally occurring plants, but they can patent an effective chemical compound extracted from a plant that they have isolated, or present a mixture of herbs to regulatory authorities in the US, Europe and Japan and ask for approval.
To do this, they need to have carried out quality control tests and be able to guarantee consistent dosages, Silver said.
Isolating one compound in an herb is a very difficult process that involves a lot of computing power and time, Silver said, but it is very lucrative if successful. Presenting an herbal mix for approval is much simpler, and is now possible after US Food and Drug Administration rules were changed last year.
That is exactly what Cathay is doing with a mixture of 15 different Chinese herbs that it claims from its own preliminary trials can treat sufferers of Hepatitis B and HIV.
On the strength of this research, Cathay submitted an application to the FDA for its multi-herb treatment and had it accepted, Town said yesterday.
Town expects the second phase of clinical trials to be completed and approved within 12 months. After that, Cathay can sell licenses for its treatment to global pharmaceutical companies who have the resources to complete the third and final phase of trials before marketing the drug globally.
Other Taiwanese companies could follow this route.
"Our business model works," Cathay's chairman, David Wu (
While awaiting FDA approval Cathay is exploring other avenues, Wu added. In Taiwan, Cathay's approved over-the-counter liver tonic, called YGK (
If successful, the drug would be paid for by international humanitarian donations.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last
US CONSCULTANT: The US Department of Commerce’s Ursula Burns is a rarely seen US government consultant to be put forward to sit on the board, nominated as an independent director Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, yesterday nominated 10 candidates for its new board of directors, including Ursula Burns from the US Department of Commerce. It is rare that TSMC has nominated a US government consultant to sit on its board. Burns was nominated as one of seven independent directors. She is vice chair of the department’s Advisory Council on Supply Chain Competitiveness. Burns is to stand for election at TSMC’s annual shareholders’ meeting on June 4 along with the rest of the candidates. TSMC chairman Mark Liu (劉德音) was not on the list after in December last