The world's second largest pharmaceutical company, Glaxo-SmithKline (GSK), is planning to set up a vaccine research and development center in Taiwan, sources from the Executive Yuan said yesterday.
Russell Greig, president of GSK Pharmaceuticals International, paid a courtesy visit to Premier Yu Shyi-kun Tuesday for talks on the company's plans to establish a vaccine R&D center in Taiwan, which would be the company's first in Asia, as well as a vaccine mass production center, Executive Yuan officials said.
GSK is a world-leading research-based pharmaceutical company headquartered in the UK, with operations based in the US.
Its management signed a cooperation memorandum with Health Minister Chen Chien-jen (
Huge market
According to Greig, GSK is eyeing Asia's potentially huge market for vaccines against communicable diseases, with China as the prime target.
If the GSK vaccine R&D center is established in Taiwan, it will serve as the company's vaccine supply hub in Asia, fully dealing with demand in the region, Greig said during his meeting with Premier Yu.
Greig is expected to exchange views with Taiwan officials on two major issues: namely whether the company's branch office can establish a GSK research and development center in Taiwan, and how GSK products will be exported to China from Taiwan, according to Executive Yuan officials.
According to the nation's law, a branch office of a foreign company cannot invest in Taiwan to set up a research and development center like the one that GSK envisages establishing.
However, the GSK can easily do so if it first establishes a new company in Taiwan, the officials said
WTO solution
As to the issue of how GSK products will be exported to China from Taiwan, the officials said that as both Taiwan and China are WTO members, this will not be a problem.
In response, the government will facilitate the GSK investment plan by offering tax breaks and assistance in land acquisition, as well as by rewording relevant medical regulations and removing other investment barriers.
GSK has about a 7-percent share of the world's pharmaceutical market. It also has leadership in four major therapeutic areas -- namely anti-infective, central nervous system, respiratory, and gastro-intestinal/metabolic drugs.
GSK had sales of US$31.8 billion and before-tax profits of US$9.7 billion for last year. Pharmaceutical sales amounted to US$27 billion for last year, with new products representing 27 percent of total sales.
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