Local drug developer Orient Pharma (友霖生技) said yesterday its oral solution for excessive drooling is likely to be licensed to US companies by the end of this year.
In addition, a generic drug for diabetes is also likely to be approved by the US government by the fourth quarter and become the first generic drug for diabetes on the US market, Orient Pharma spokesperson Anita Chen (陳嬿娟) said at a biotechnology exhibition and conference yesterday.
The four-day Bio Taiwan is taking place at the Taipei World Trade Center.
Orient Pharma’s oral solution has completed the second phase of clinical trials and the results were presented at the 17th international congress of Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders in Sydney, Australia, last month.
The company said most people with central nervous system problems suffer excessive drooling and that according to a WHO estimate, the annual US market for central nervous system diseases is valued at US$70 billion and that for new diabetes treatments is about US$3 billion.
Meanwhile, local drug maker SynCore Biotechnology Co (杏國新藥) said that Veregen, its cure for genital warts, had received a permit from the government and will be on sale by the end of this quarter.
The company said it is also planning to become a listed company on the Emerging Stock Market, but did not provide a specific date.
HIGH EXPECTATIONS
Medical care equipment suppliers are also participating at this year’s event amid high expectations that they will soon be included in a government subsidy program.
In his opening speech at the event, President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) said that the government would include the development of high-risk medical devices into a subsidy program in an amendment to the Act for the Development of the Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry (生技新藥產業發展條例).
The amendment of the act is set to be reviewed by the legislature in the September to December session, Ma said.
Total revenue for the local biomedical industry last year was NT$263 billion, up 10 percent from the previous year, a higher increase than many industries, Ma said.
However, most companies in the biomedical industry are small and medium-sized enterprises, Ma said, adding that the government aims to support the industry and increase its total output to NT$500 billion by 2020, with the revenue of each of the top five companies exceeding NT$10 billion.
Separately, Medical supply provider Nang Kuang Pharmaceutical Co (南光化學製藥) said its prefilled syringe, which is used to clean a central venous catheter or an implanted port, had successfully been used by National Taiwan University Hospital and Shin Kong Wu Ho-su Memorial Hospital.
“The Bureau of National Health Insurance is likely to agree to cover the cost of our prefilled syringe by next quarter,” Nang Kuang sales director Song Chih-jen (宋智仁) said.
The prefilled syringe cuts risks of contamination when cleaning a patient’s central venous catheter or implanted port, Song said.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained