Chinese companies involved with genetic testing retreated after news that a researcher altered the genes of twin infant girls provoked global outrage and sparked a government investigation.
BGI Genomics Co (華大基因) and Berry Genomics Co (貝瑞基因), which both offer gene-testing services, fell as much as 3.3 percent.
Harmonicare Medical Holdings Ltd (和美醫療), a private obstetrics and gynecology hospital group linked to the episode, dropped the most in three months.
Claims by Shenzhen-based researcher He Jiankui (賀建奎) that he created the world’s first genetically edited babies have prompted a backlash from health officials and other scientists.
The Chinese National Health and Family Planning Commission on its Web site on Monday said it had ordered officials in Guangdong Province to investigate.
“Harmonicare’s slump in Hong Kong as well as some related share declines in China are due to concern that the government may tighten industry policy after seeing the gene-editing controversy,” Bright Smart Securities (耀才證券) analyst Mark Huang said. “In many cases, capital and leverage may also bring hidden risks, including social and moral ones, and once the problem becomes bigger, we may see regulatory tightening or structural adjustment in the sector.”
Harmonicare Medical Holdings, which owns the hospital from which the researcher said he got approval, slid as much as 6.8 percent in Hong Kong.
A listing for He’s clinical trial on a public database appeared to show an approval form stamped by Shenzhen Harmonicare Women’s and Children’s Hospital, although that could not be independently verified.
A hospital general manager said approval for He’s work might have been falsified and the matter has been reported to police, the Securities Times reported.
The hospital has no relationship with the researcher, she added.
An investor relations representative for Harmonicare Medical said it is investigating the claims when reached by telephone yesterday.
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
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
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
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the