Lawmakers continued to aim questions at the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) about suspected insider trading and market manipulation due to the turbulent price movements of OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎) shares after the company announced a discouraging outcome for a new breast cancer drug.
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Legislator-at-large William Tseng (曾銘宗) urged the commission to determine if Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) had violated the Securities and Exchange Act (證券交易法) by speaking on behalf of OBI Pharma.
Wong, a close collaborator of the company and an expert in the field, had voiced his support of the drug, saying that the flawed design of the clinical trial was to blame for the failure.
Tseng questioned whether it was appropriate for a public figure of Wong’s stature to speak on behalf of a single company, as such actions are likely to influence share prices.
In addition, Tseng, who previously served as commission chairman, also urged his successor to probe two offshore companies listed among OBI Pharma’s major stakeholders and their relations with the drug developer’s interested parties.
Tseng said that the commission should re-evaluate a decision that eased requirements on the disclosure of major material information on new drug development by biotechnology firms.
Meanwhile, despite a statement by the Academia Sinica last week maintaining that Wong was not involved with OBI Pharma’s management and had not invested in Taiwan’s biotechnology sector, KMT Legislator Alex Fai (費鴻泰) accused Wong of having a role in the firm.
Fai claimed that OBI Pharma chairman Michael Chang (張念慈) was acting as Wong’s proxy in the company.
Meanwhile, Futures Bureau Director-General Wu Yui-chun (吳裕群) said that regardless of Wong’s stock portfolio, ongoing investigations are focused on proving culpable intent to influence the market.
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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