The nation has the academic know-how, but lacks a market strategy and solid supply chain to boost the biotech sector at home and make inroads in the global market, the Cabinet’s biotechnology committee said yesterday.
The committee, responsible for making biotechnology the next mainstream industry in a decade, said in a report it was ready set up a platform for new drug discovery techniques and put together a service team to provide technology market assessments, legal consultations and patent analyses.
To that end, the committee aims to establish three biotech science parks in different parts of the country.
Young Shuenn-Tsong (楊順聰), an adviser on the panel, said he expected the project to double biotech output within five years and stimulate private investment by at least NT$54 billion (US$167 million) each year, starting in 2013.
“The industry is expected to turn into a trillion-dollar business after 2013,” Young said in his report. “The biotech parks and industry clusters are expected to take shape in 10 years, promising further revenue potential and creating job opportunities.”
While the nation has the academic infrastructure for strengthening the biotech industry, Young said the government should help address the fact that research in the area lacks market orientation and commercial planning.
In addition, the absence of a solid supply chain between medical devices and drugs has weakened intellectual property protections and dampened profit margins, the academic said.
Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) agreed, saying that medical students in Taiwan were inequipped to discover new drugs, but had demonstrated the ability to do so while studying abroad. Wong expressed the hope that the panel would make better use of resources to improve the situation.
Wong said Taiwan’s share in the global biomedicine market remained small and that the nation should work harder to expand its influence.
Drug turnover picked up 1.4 percent to NT$69 billion last year, from NT$68 billion a year earlier, the Council for Economic Planning and Development said in a recent statement.
To facilitate growth, the council is establishing a Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) that is expected to hire 500 staffers and start operations next year.
TFDA will help the industry link up with the international biomedicine market, while strengthening drug safety and oversight, Young said.
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