TaiMed Biologics Inc’s (中裕新藥) sales of its Trogarzo HIV treatment are forecast to boom this year after the European Commission on Thursday last week approved it to be marketed, the company said yesterday.
The company plans to begin marketing the drug in Germany this year, as the nation has friendly regulations on drug pricing, allowing companies to market products before wholesale prices are finalized, TaiMed chief financial officer Jack Chen (陳怡成) said by telephone.
Company partner Montreal-based Theratechnologies Inc has begun making connections with hospitals and patients in Germany, targeting sales of the drug by the end of this year or at the beginning of next year, Chen said.
Theratechnologies — TaiMed’s exclusive marketing and distribution partner in more than 30 markets, including the US, Canada and the EU — is to negotiate prices with regulatory bodies in Europe, he said.
The European price has been estimated at 30 percent lower than US$118,000 for a year of treatment in the US, he said.
Trogarzo is a fourth-line treatment and a drug that is designed for people with multi-drug resistance, TaiMed said.
The number of people in Europe with HIV/AIDS who are multi-drug resistant, which means they require alternative treatments, is estimated to be between 20,000 and 25,000, Chen said.
TaiMed is to pay US$5 million to US-based Genentech Inc as a milestone payment, as Genentech developed and licensed the antibody ibalizumab (TMB-355), a key ingredient of Trogarzo.
TaiMed posted revenue of NT$283 million (US$9.12 million) in the first half of this year and expects its full-year revenue to reach NT$800 million thanks to stable sales of Trogarzo in the US, Chen said, adding that the company started marketing the drug in the US in April last year.
It reported a non-operating loss of NT$43 million in the first half, due to a drop in the value of its stake in Theratechnologies, Chen said.
Gross margin fell to 17 percent for the first six months due to low production yield at contract manufacturer WuXi Biologics Co (無錫生物製藥), which is responsible for the production of Trogarzo, Chen said, adding that the yield improved in the third quarter.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has secured three construction permits for its plan to build a state-of-the-art A14 wafer fab in Taichung, and is likely to start construction soon, the Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau said yesterday. Speaking with CNA, Wang Chun-chieh (王俊傑), deputy director general of the science park bureau, said the world’s largest contract chipmaker has received three construction permits — one to build a fab to roll out sophisticated chips, another to build a central utility plant to provide water and electricity for the facility and the other to build three office buildings. With the three permits, TSMC
RUN IT BACK: A succesful first project working with hyperscalers to design chips encouraged MediaTek to start a second project, aiming to hit stride in 2028 MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it is engaging a second hyperscaler to help design artificial intelligence (AI) accelerators used in data centers following a similar project expected to generate revenue streams soon. The first AI accelerator project is to bring in US$1 billion revenue next year and several billion US dollars more in 2027, MediaTek chief executive officer Rick Tsai (蔡力行) told a virtual investor conference yesterday. The second AI accelerator project is expected to contribute to revenue beginning in 2028, Tsai said. MediaTek yesterday raised its revenue forecast for the global AI accelerator used
The DBS Foundation yesterday announced the launch of two flagship programs, “Silver Motion” and “Happier Caregiver, Healthier Seniors,” in partnership with CCILU Ltd, Hondao Senior Citizens’ Welfare Foundation and the Garden of Hope Foundation to help Taiwan face the challenges of a rapidly aging population. The foundation said it would invest S$4.91 million (US$3.8 million) over three years to foster inclusion and resilience in an aging society. “Aging may bring challenges, but it also brings opportunities. With many Asian markets rapidly becoming super-aged, the DBS Foundation is working with a regional ecosystem of like-minded partners across the private, public and people sectors
BREAKTHROUGH TECH: Powertech expects its fan-out PLP system to become mainstream, saying it can offer three-times greater production throughput Chip packaging service provider Powertech Technology Inc (力成科技) plans to more than double its capital expenditures next year to more than NT$40 billion (US$1.31 billion) as demand for its new panel-level packaging (PLP) technology, primarily used in chips for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, has greatly exceeded what it can supply. A significant portion of the budget, about US$1 billion, would be earmarked for fan-out PLP technology, Powertech told investors yesterday. Its heavy investment in fan-out PLP technology over the past 10 years is expected to bear fruit in 2027 after the technology enters volume production, it said, adding that the tech would
RSS