Thu, Oct 09, 2008 page4

• STAG goals challenge bio industry

  PATENT-WORTHY The industry should work to upgrade its manufacturing sector for various medical equipment, a partner from a venture capital firm said

  • By Meggie Lu / STAFF REPORTER
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  To push for the developmental maturation of Taiwan’s biotech industry — and potentially help the trade generate trillions in profits — the Executive Yuan’s Science and Technology Advisory Group (STAG) said yesterday that it had set concrete goals for the industry.

  “[One of the main goals] is for the nation to produce 10 preclinical development drug candidates a year starting in 2010,” co-convener and minister without portfolio Chang Jin-fu (張進福) said at the conclusion of the 2008 STAG’s BioTaiwan committee (BTC) meeting.

  If half of these drug candidates successfully enter the phase I clinical trial stage, this could be a mass and lucrative market, as each would be worth US$250 million to US$1.5 billion in value, BTC member Soo Whai-jen (蘇懷仁) said.

  Soo, who is the senior vice president of biopharmaceutical company Shire Pharmaceuticals’ research and development at its Human Genetic Therapies business (HGT) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was among the foreign-based experts who gathered yesterday with domestic officials to discuss the future of biotechnology in Taiwan.

  To facilitate the industry in reaching the goals, BTC plans to fill gaps in the current biotech drug production chain, Chang said.

  “[For example], with clear and designated budgets as well as a standardized process in drug discovery, we will demand relevant upper stream research institutions to reach that goal, and transfer the drug candidates to mid-stream agencies for preclinical trials,” he said.

  In the three stages of biopharmaceutical development — research, development and early clinical trial, and late clinical trial — Taiwan had been weak in stages two and three, the committee said.

  “While we have many upper stream developments [“ideas”] as well as capital floating in the market, investors say they do not have [mature] cases to invest in,” Chang said.

  As there are 20 to 30 lead compounds in the biotech sector under Academia Sinica and other governmental agencies, the government can lead half of the cases to the early clinical trial phase, Soo said, implying that Taiwan can focus its efforts on second stage success.

  “Once [Taiwanese firms] achieve a stage two drug — drugs that are past the drug candidate stage by having gone through some clinical trials, but need more global clinical trials to be approved to sell on the market — they can decide whether to sell it to a larger, global firm [for US$250 million to US$1.5 billion each], or continue development until the drug reaches the consumer’s market,” he said.

  Another goal for the industry is to upgrade its medical equipment manufacturing sector, said BTC’s Jang Yue-teh (張有德), a general partner at the US’ Vertical Group, a venture capital firm that is focused on the fields of medical technology and biotechnology.

  “Though medical equipment in the country comprise a NT$75 billion industry, most are based on low level products such as syringes and sphygmomanometers,” Jang said.

  What the industry needs, Jang said, is to begin making patent-worthy products, a goal that can be reached by establishing a platform for front line medical professionals to communicate with engineers so that problems detected by current medical devices and procedures can be solved with newly designed equipment.
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