Compal Electronics Inc’s (仁寶電腦) medical business, Raypal Biomedical Co Ltd (瑞寶生醫), yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding with Kaohsiung Medical University Chung-Ho Memorial Hospital to cooperate on establishing the first Good Tissue Practice cellular therapy center in southern Taiwan.
Established in 2016, Raypal Biomedical specializes in research into immunocytes and immunotherapy, as well as the use of stem cells in cancer treatments.
The cellular therapy center is expected to open in March and provide treatments to cancer patients, the company said.
Hospital superintendent Hou Ming-feng (侯明鋒) said that both parties would focus on developing cancer vaccines, as well as chimeric antigen receptor T-cell treatment.
Compal has been investing in cellular therapy since 2015, Compal vice chairman Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) said.
The company has set up a cellular laboratory, invested in more than 10 biomedical companies and established Shennona Corp (神寶醫資), which specializes in medical Internet of Things solutions.
Compal earlier this year invested NT$60 million (US$1.96 million at the current exchange rate) in biotechnology start-up Hipposcreen (宏智), which was founded in partnership with National Taipei University of Technology.
Compal president Martin Wong (翁宗斌) earlier this year said that the company would seek to develop cures for insomnia through the use of brainwave detectors in partnership with a French firm.
The company would be focusing on providing healthcare services to seniors as they become one of the medical industry’s biggest growth sectors, Wong said.
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],”
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
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained