Drugmaker TaiGen Biotechnology Co (太景生技) yesterday said it is planning to sign an agreement granting Holding Disp Co Ltd (文德藥業) the domestic sales and distribution rights to its new antibiotics for community-acquired pneumonia treatment.
TaiGen’s board yesterday approved a plan authorizing CEO and chairman Hsu Ming-chu (許明珠) to sign the deal with Holding Disp, allowing the latter to sell both oral and intravenous formulations of nemonoxacin — trade name Taigexyn — in Taiwan, TaiGen chief financial officer Max Chan (詹孟恭) said by telephone yesterday.
Holding Disp will be responsible for most of the marketing expenses in Taiwan, TaiGen said.
TaiGen expects peak sales of both oral and intravenous formulations of nemonoxacin to reach about NT$350 million to NT$400 million (US$11.2 million to US$12.8 million) a year in Taiwan and 1 billion yuan (US$162 million) a year in China, it said.
The price of the intravenous formulation of nemonoxacin is about eight to 10 times higher than that of its oral version, Chan said, adding that the former is mainly used for patients with severe conditions.
TaiGen’s intravenous formulation of nemonoxacin is currently in phase three clinical trials on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, while the oral formulation can enter the local market after the National Health Insurance Administration sets the price for the drug.
Holding Disp is a 30-year-old private company, with about 100 employees and annual revenue of about NT$500 million, TaiGen said.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
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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