An alleged insider-trading case against OBI Pharma Inc has been in the news for weeks and is still far from being finalized, with TV talk shows and news reports taking advantage of the scandal to challenge the vested interests in the local biotech industry and in the nation’s political economy.
It is ironic that this allegation, and with it a call for the resignation of Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠), comes at a time when president-elect Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) government is touting the development of biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry as the cornerstone of economic growth.
Conspiracy theories abound, particularly among the ranks of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), who see the OBI case as an perfect display of greed and corruption involving certain biotech investors, Tsai and her family.
These KMT members — who orchestrated an attempt to discredit Tsai over the Yu Chang Biologics Co investment case during her presidential campaign in 2012 — think that as long as they continue their mudslinging campaigns, no matter what the legal outcome, they can eventually damage the legitimacy of the new government under Tsai.
The DPP would not want a repeat of the Yu Chang case, which hurt Tsai and the party. For the DPP, Wong needs to explain how the OBI shares held by his daughter were sold days prior to the release of clinical trial data for a new breast cancer drug, and apologize for his remarks about the efficacy of OBI-822, despite discouraging test results.
Many investors — who either harbored unrealistic expectations about OBI or were amenable to risky investment and ignored red flags — have seen the losses add up as the company’s shares slumped in view of its failed OBI-822 clinical trials. OBI investors might accept the consequences of their high-risk investment, but they are unlikely to endure their losses if other investors had information about the clinical trial results and were able to sell OBI shares before they were announced.
For now, the Shihlin Prosecutors’ Office in Taipei has started looking into allegations of insider trading, after receiving all related materials from the Financial Supervisory Commission. As the public learns about the alleged OBI shares misconduct and the potential for conflicts of interest of company insiders to arise, it raises the question whether the case reflects a changing fortune in Taiwan’s biotech industry.
In the past couple of years, the government has encouraged biotech development as a way to transform the economy. Since the legislature passed the Biotech and New Pharmaceutical Development Act (生技新藥產業發展條例) in 2007, the government has launched the Hsinchu Biomedical Science Park, state-run venture capital firm TMF Management Co and the biotech-oriented Supra Integration and Incubation Center. In addition, more than 200 biotech-related companies have now raised funds from shareholders on the open market.
However, can such enthusiasm develop the industry into another trillion-New Taiwan dollar industry? Would it come under increased public scrutiny? Would biotech still have a chance to become a pillar of economic growth under Tsai’s policy framework? If a certain group of investors comprising business tycoons, scientists and stock market players have quiet control, would they manipulate biotech shares? Perhaps, but prosecutors need more evidence to prove it.
Whatever the result in the OBI case, strong volatility in biotech shares is likely to be a thing of the past to most people and a forgotten lesson for greedy investors. Even so, the regulator must take disciplinary action against those violating transparency in information disclosure and found guilty of insider trading — for the sake of protecting investors and ensuring the industry’s long-term development.
Saudi Arabian largesse is flooding Egypt’s cultural scene, but the reception is mixed. Some welcome new “cooperation” between two regional powerhouses, while others fear a hostile takeover by Riyadh. In Cairo, historically the cultural capital of the Arab world, Egyptian Minister of Culture Nevine al-Kilany recently hosted Saudi Arabian General Entertainment Authority chairman Turki al-Sheikh. The deep-pocketed al-Sheikh has emerged as a Medici-like patron for Egypt’s cultural elite, courted by Cairo’s top talent to produce a slew of forthcoming films. A new three-way agreement between al-Sheikh, Kilany and United Media Services — a multi-media conglomerate linked to state intelligence that owns much of
The US and other countries should take concrete steps to confront the threats from Beijing to avoid war, US Representative Mario Diaz-Balart said in an interview with Voice of America on March 13. The US should use “every diplomatic economic tool at our disposal to treat China as what it is... to avoid war,” Diaz-Balart said. Giving an example of what the US could do, he said that it has to be more aggressive in its military sales to Taiwan. Actions by cross-party US lawmakers in the past few years such as meeting with Taiwanese officials in Washington and Taipei, and
The Republic of China (ROC) on Taiwan has no official diplomatic allies in the EU. With the exception of the Vatican, it has no official allies in Europe at all. This does not prevent the ROC — Taiwan — from having close relations with EU member states and other European countries. The exact nature of the relationship does bear revisiting, if only to clarify what is a very complicated and sensitive idea, the details of which leave considerable room for misunderstanding, misrepresentation and disagreement. Only this week, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) received members of the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations
Denmark’s “one China” policy more and more resembles Beijing’s “one China” principle. At least, this is how things appear. In recent interactions with the Danish state, such as applying for residency permits, a Taiwanese’s nationality would be listed as “China.” That designation occurs for a Taiwanese student coming to Denmark or a Danish citizen arriving in Denmark with, for example, their Taiwanese partner. Details of this were published on Sunday in an article in the Danish daily Berlingske written by Alexander Sjoberg and Tobias Reinwald. The pretext for this new practice is that Denmark does not recognize Taiwan as a state under