More than one year after its establishment, it is welcome news that a government-funded biotechnology incubation center announced last week that it will soon start providing funds to qualified research projects.
With NT$50 million (US$1.7 million) proposed for each business start-up over a three-year period and at least NT$100 million a year for qualified research institutes, the Supra Integration and Incubation Center (SIIC) is gearing up to identify candidates with potential in drugs and medical devices.
The center’s aim is also to formulate complete industry value chains for each project and provide funds using less red tape, bringing products to market in the shortest time possible.
In the long run, the center hopes it can help Taiwanese companies lead the Asia-Pacific region in biotech fields such as lung cancer and liver cancer treatment.
This vision can only be realized if the government is committed to financially supporting the center with a long-term strategy and if it can attract a great deal of private capital, the engine for future growth.
The SIIC funding program is one of several developments since the legislature passed the Biotech and New Pharmaceutical Development Act (生技新藥產業發展條例) in 2007.
Over the past six years, the government has also launched the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park and state-run venture capital firm TMF Management Co.
Unfortunately, TMF encountered difficulties raising capital due to political rows during the 2011 presidential election campaign over government investments in Yu Chang Biologics Co, now known as TaiMed Biologics Inc, which has a special focus on developing a new AIDS drug known as TNX-355.
Despite an optimistic forecast for high growth in the nation’s biotech industry, there are serious hurdles blocking the road to its development.
The biggest problem, industry veterans say, is that the sector is weak in transforming innovative ideas into profitable products.
However, the goal of developing Taiwan’s biotech industry into another trillion-dollar industry should give people a reason to come to this country, which is known for its strong education system, good healthcare, quality medical research and a common cultural background with China.
In addition, Taiwan’s strength in information and communications technology could provide innovation and extra benefits in developing biotechnology.
However, the issue with the government-run incubation center is its ambitious plan for business start-ups that aims not just to develop them as an important part in the global biotech supply chain, but also to turn them into successful manufacturers of profitable products through the clinical trial and regulatory approval stages.
That means the costly and time-consuming grooming of biotech start-ups, which requires the public and private sectors to have deep pockets and a firm commitment to make it happen. The start-ups also need support from a well-developed investment environment, where an efficient bureaucracy and legal system and a sufficient pool of legal and financial professionals must be available.
Because the nation’s biotech industry is lagging behind other countries’, it may be helpful if domestic companies can cooperate with international businesses to shorten their learning curve and more quickly upgrade their technology. The SIIC could provide certain matchmaking services to create collaboration between local and foreign companies.
Taiwan’s biotech industry still has great potential. While entrepreneurs could use their ample capital to invest in quality biotech firms, the government should maintain a consistent policy toward the sector.
Without this, its promise to develop a trillion-dollar industry is simply an election slogan.
Could Asia be on the verge of a new wave of nuclear proliferation? A look back at the early history of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), which recently celebrated its 75th anniversary, illuminates some reasons for concern in the Indo-Pacific today. US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin recently described NATO as “the most powerful and successful alliance in history,” but the organization’s early years were not without challenges. At its inception, the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty marked a sea change in American strategic thinking. The United States had been intent on withdrawing from Europe in the years following
My wife and I spent the week in the interior of Taiwan where Shuyuan spent her childhood. In that town there is a street that functions as an open farmer’s market. Walk along that street, as Shuyuan did yesterday, and it is next to impossible to come home empty-handed. Some mangoes that looked vaguely like others we had seen around here ended up on our table. Shuyuan told how she had bought them from a little old farmer woman from the countryside who said the mangoes were from a very old tree she had on her property. The big surprise
The issue of China’s overcapacity has drawn greater global attention recently, with US Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen urging Beijing to address its excess production in key industries during her visit to China last week. Meanwhile in Brussels, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen last week said that Europe must have a tough talk with China on its perceived overcapacity and unfair trade practices. The remarks by Yellen and Von der Leyen come as China’s economy is undergoing a painful transition. Beijing is trying to steer the world’s second-largest economy out of a COVID-19 slump, the property crisis and
Former president Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) trip to China provides a pertinent reminder of why Taiwanese protested so vociferously against attempts to force through the cross-strait service trade agreement in 2014 and why, since Ma’s presidential election win in 2012, they have not voted in another Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) candidate. While the nation narrowly avoided tragedy — the treaty would have put Taiwan on the path toward the demobilization of its democracy, which Courtney Donovan Smith wrote about in the Taipei Times in “With the Sunflower movement Taiwan dodged a bullet” — Ma’s political swansong in China, which included fawning dithyrambs