PHARMACEUTICALS
Drug enters phase 2 trial
ASLAN Pharmaceuticals (亞獅康) yesterday announced the approval of its investigational new drug application by the Singaporean Health Sciences Authority to initiate a phase 2 study of ASLAN003, a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia. ASLAN003 is small-molecule inhibitor of the human dihydroorotate dehydrogenase enzyme. Acute myeloid leukemia is a rapidly progressing blood cancer that is characterized by the uncontrolled proliferation of immature blast cells in bone marrow. The phase 2 trial is a dose optimization study and the primary outcome is to determine the optimum monotherapy dose of ASLAN003.
ENERGY
Gintech back in the black
Solar cell manufacturer Gintech Energy Corp (昱晶能源) swung into a net profit of NT$2 million (US$66,247) last quarter due to improving demand and rising prices, snapping four quarters of losses. Gintech lost NT$339 million in the second quarter and NT$2.56 billion in the third quarter last year, according to a company statement released on Friday last week. Gross margin rose to 4.2 percent last quarter, from minus-5.6 percent the previous quarter and minus-104.9 percent a year earlier, the statement showed. Gintech attributed the improvement to price increases and a higher factory utilization rate.
STOCK MARKET
TAIEX closes below 10,700
The TAIEX closed lower yesterday, falling below 10,700 points, as the weighted index fell below its monthly moving average of 10,757 for the third consecutive trading session. The main index closed down 48.75 points, or 0.45 percent, at the day’s low of 10,683.92, after hitting a high of 10,749.39. Turnover totaled NT$121.93 billion during the session. The market’s focus later this month would be trained on the US Federal Reserve’s monetary policy meeting, US tax reform proposals, the financial performance of the iPhone supply chain in the fourth quarter, and the third and fourth-quarter results of Taiwanese and US companies, analysts said. Foreign institutional investors were net sellers of NT$1.82 billion of shares on the main board yesterday, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed.
CONVENTIONS
Kaohsiung to host ICCA
The International Congress and Convention Association (ICCA) has selected Kaohsiung as the host of its 2020 congress, beating other cities such as Japan’s Yokohama and Colombia’s Cartagena. “Kaohsiung told a compelling story of a city that is reinventing itself through the power of meetings, their team designed creative concepts that will help ICCA engage more effectively with Asia-Pacific-based associations, and they demonstrated great team cohesion and offered tremendous value for money. I have no doubt that 2020 will be a wonderful congress experience for our entire global community,” ICCA president Nina Freysen-Pretorius said at the association’s 56th congress in Prague, Czech Republic.
SERVICES
Slight overheating forecast
The nation’s service sector could have shown continued signs of slight overheating last month, the Commerce Development Research Institute (CDRI, 商業發展研究院) said last week when it released its report for September. Last month’s score could remain 105 points, unchanged from September, on the back of promotional campaigns by department stores and the Mid-Autumn Festival, the institute said. The report for last month is scheduled to be released early next month.
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],”
TRANSFORMATION: Taiwan is now home to the largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, thanks to the nation’s economic policies President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) yesterday attended an event marking the opening of Google’s second hardware research and development (R&D) office in Taiwan, which was held at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋). This signals Taiwan’s transformation into the world’s largest Google hardware research and development center outside of the US, validating the nation’s economic policy in the past eight years, she said. The “five plus two” innovative industries policy, “six core strategic industries” initiative and infrastructure projects have grown the national industry and established resilient supply chains that withstood the COVID-19 pandemic, Tsai said. Taiwan has improved investment conditions of the domestic economy
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