A legislative committee yesterday adopted a resolution demanding that Academia Sinica President Wong Chi-huey (翁啟惠) return to Taiwan from the US as soon as possible to clear up a controversy in connection with alleged insider trading of a pharmaceutical company’s shares.
If Wong cannot return to Taiwan immediately, he should submit a written report to the Legislative Yuan’s Education and Culture Committee within one week, the resolution said.
He is required to deliver an oral report to the committee within one week of his return, it added.
Photo: Chu Pei-hsiung, Taipei Times
Wong, who is in the US for academic activities, had earlier said that he would return to Taiwan to attend a hearing on the case scheduled for yesterday.
On Tuesday, he called President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) to express his intention to resign from his post as head of the nation’s highest academic institution, citing health reasons, and tendered his written resignation on Wednesday.
Ma rejected Wong’s resignation and instructed him to return to Taiwan as soon as possible to report to him and the legislature, according to Presidential Office spokesman Charles Chen (陳以信).
Photo: Chien Jung-fong, Taipei Times
Academia Sinica is under the direct administrative supervision of the Presidential Office.
The controversy flared up following Wong’s endorsement of a new cancer drug by publicly listed biotech company OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎), even though the company announced on Feb. 21 that the drug had failed second and third-round clinical trials, news that sent the company’s stock price plunging.
Wong is a biochemist considered to be an expert on the theory behind OBI Pharma’s cancer drug.
On March 3, Wong issued a statement through Academia Sinica that he did not hold any shares in Taiwan’s biotech companies.
However, Next Magazine reported on Wednesday last week that Wong’s daughter, Wong Yu-shioh (翁郁秀), obtained 3 million OBI Pharma shares in 2012 at the price of NT$31 per share before it was listed on the emerging stock market.
The company was listed on the over-the-counter market at NT$310 per share the following year.
The revelation fueled accusations against Wong Chi-huey of a conflict of interests and possible insider trading.
An initial investigation found that Wong Yu-shioh sold more than 10,000 of her OBI Pharma shares three months before the announcement of the cancer drug’s trial failure.
Wong Chi-huey yesterday penned a letter addressed to his Academia Sinica colleagues.
“My personal affairs have lately became the subject of public controversy, with an impact on our institution’s reputation that is profoundly disturbing to me. I am currently abroad and physically indisposed, and I am therefore unable to attend our March 30 report to the Legislative Yuan,” he said in the letter. “I had tendered my resignation to the president and will, upon concluding my affairs abroad, immediately return [to Taiwan] to make an explanation [about this affair].”
“I will continue in the future to dedicate my professional knowledge to science and biotechnological research in Taiwan,” he added.
One of two tropical depressions that formed off Taiwan yesterday morning could turn into a moderate typhoon by the weekend, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Tropical Depression No. 21 formed at 8am about 1,850km off the southeast coast, CWA forecaster Lee Meng-hsuan (李孟軒) said. The weather system is expected to move northwest as it builds momentum, possibly intensifying this weekend into a typhoon, which would be called Mitag, Lee said. The radius of the storm is expected to reach almost 200km, she said. It is forecast to approach the southeast of Taiwan on Monday next week and pass through the Bashi Channel
WARNING: People in coastal areas need to beware of heavy swells and strong winds, and those in mountainous areas should brace for heavy rain, the CWA said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday issued sea and land warnings for Typhoon Ragasa, forecasting that it would continue to intensify and affect the nation the most today and tomorrow. People in Hualien and Taitung counties, and mountainous areas in Yilan and Pingtung counties, should brace for damage caused by extremely heavy rain brought by the typhoon’s outer rim, as it was upgraded to a super typhoon yesterday morning, the CWA said. As of 5:30pm yesterday, the storm’s center was about 630km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, moving northwest at 21kph, and its maximum wind speed had reached
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said that it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Ragasa this morning and a land warning at night as it approached Taiwan. Ragasa intensified from a tropical storm into a typhoon at 8am yesterday, the CWA said, adding that at 2pm, it was about 1,110km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip. The typhoon was moving northwest at 13kph, with sustained winds of up to 119kph and gusts reaching 155kph, the CWA Web site showed. Forecaster Liu Pei-teng (劉沛滕) said that Ragasa was projected to strengthen as it neared the Bashi Channel, with its 200km
PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENTS: Hualien and Taitung counties declared today a typhoon day, while schools and offices in parts of Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties are also to close Typhoon Ragasa was forecast to hit its peak strength and come closest to Taiwan from yesterday afternoon through today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. Taiwan proper could be out of the typhoon’s radius by midday and the sea warning might be lifted tonight, it added. CWA senior weather specialist Wu Wan-hua (伍婉華) said that Ragasa’s radius had reached the Hengchun Peninsula by 11am yesterday and was expected to hit Taitung County and Kaohsiung by yesterday evening. Ragasa was forecast to move to Taiwan’s southern offshore areas last night and to its southwestern offshore areas early today, she added. As of 8pm last night,
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