BioBusiness Asia, a conference put on by regional governments and venture capital groups to promote collaboration between biotechnology firms from around the region, opened in Taipei yesterday.
Among the 24 pan-Asian companies invited to show off their research and business plans -- including companies from Australia, India, Japan and Singapore -- Taiwan fielded six, and pundits said they are among the best in the country.
"Initially, it was a long list. We had to reduce it during the screening process," said Johnsee Lee (李鐘熙), vice director of the Biomedical Engineering Center at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (工研院), a leading public-funded research group in Taiwan. He said around eight or nine companies from each country submitted their information to the conference coordinators and many were rejected.
In Taiwan, the criteria for gaining the chance to show off and possibly impress a major venture-capital firm was international contact. Lee said technology and international involvement were top criteria for the six firms selected from Taiwan to participate.
"Biotechnology, if you just do it locally, will not be very robust," he said. "We looked at Taiwanese companies in terms of leadership and technology, and most importantly in their international collaboration and investment."
Representing the best of Taiwan's industry were AbGenomics Co, Advanced Gene Technology Co (先進基因), AsiaGen Co (亞洲基因科技), ScinoPharm Taiwan Ltd (台灣神隆), TaiGen Biotech Inc (太景生物科技) and Vita Genomics Inc (賽亞基因科技).
Lee said the selection process was stringent because he hopes to make BioBusiness Asia an annual event, and ensuring that quality companies show up is the best way to do that.
"My ambition is to make Taiwan a window to Asia," he said.
International investors may not come to Taiwan just to see local firms, but a conference drawing the best from throughout Asia is worth their time, he said, "to discover the hidden dragons, the hidden biotech opportunities."
One pundit at the event pointed out that helping pay for the event also played a part in the selection of companies, as the event was paid for by venture capital firms touting their own portfolio of top biotech firms, as well as individual companies who won the right to present after sponsoring a portion of it.
Still, the same critic agreed that some of the Taiwanese firms, AbGenomics in particular, boasted interesting technology.
The company is currently seeking patents for two inventions that help in genomic and proteomic research, as well as for at least one gene the company has discovered, as well as the utility of the gene.
Companies patenting genes must describe exactly the function they are patenting, as their intellectual property is only protected under the uses they describe.
ScinoPharm, which produces ingredients for medicines, said it had moved a huge step forward by winning the US' Food and Drug Administration (FDA) stamp of approval at its site last October, according to Hardy Chan (
With FDA approval, ScinoPharm can produce ingredients that will ultimately end up on store shelves in the US. The company will have to win approval again for every new ingredient it seeks to sell to US firms.
Three of the six Taiwanese companies made presentations at Biobusiness Asia yesterday. The other three will give presentations today, the final day of the conference.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
The New Taiwan dollar and Taiwanese stocks surged on signs that trade tensions between the world’s top two economies might start easing and as US tech earnings boosted the outlook of the nation’s semiconductor exports. The NT dollar strengthened as much as 3.8 percent versus the US dollar to 30.815, the biggest intraday gain since January 2011, closing at NT$31.064. The benchmark TAIEX jumped 2.73 percent to outperform the region’s equity gauges. Outlook for global trade improved after China said it is assessing possible trade talks with the US, providing a boost for the nation’s currency and shares. As the NT dollar
PRESSURE EXPECTED: The appreciation of the NT dollar reflected expectations that Washington would press Taiwan to boost its currency against the US dollar, dealers said Taiwan’s export-oriented semiconductor and auto part manufacturers are expecting their margins to be affected by large foreign exchange losses as the New Taiwan dollar continued to appreciate sharply against the US dollar yesterday. Among major semiconductor manufacturers, ASE Technology Holding Co (日月光), the world’s largest integrated circuit (IC) packaging and testing services provider, said that whenever the NT dollar rises NT$1 against the greenback, its gross margin is cut by about 1.5 percent. The NT dollar traded as strong as NT$29.59 per US dollar before trimming gains to close NT$0.919, or 2.96 percent, higher at NT$30.145 yesterday in Taipei trading
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