Taiwan has a good chance to play an important role in the biotechnology industry if the nation can effectively integrate its medical research infrastructure with its strengths in the electronics and information industries, an Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) official said in Taipei yesterday.
By doing so, it could attract international companies to set up bioinformatics research and development (R&D) centers in Taiwan, Hsieh Liang-han (謝良翰), general director of ITRI’s international business center told the Taipei Times yesterday.
“Taiwan’s strength lies in its information and communications technology [ICT] industry and basic research. I believe if the nation’s biotechnology industry can integrate with the ICT industry, it will begin to develop at a faster pace,” Hsieh said at the sidelines of the 2008 APEC Biotechnology Conference organized by the ITRI.
What Taiwan lacks now in the field of biotechnology is the “link” in the industry value chain, Hsieh said.
For example, Taiwan may be strong in the basic research of liver disease, but the local biotech industry is still in the development stage, Hsieh said.
Stanley Chang (張世忠), chairman of the Taipei-based Medigen Biotechnology Corp (基亞生物科技), who was invited to give a speech at the conference, agreed.
“Taiwan is strong in a couple of research topics in the world, with liver cancer being our strongest point. Integrating Taiwan’s precision equipment and biotechnology is a new direction that we can seriously consider,” Chang told the Taipei Times yesterday after his speech.
To attract international companies, such as the Switzerland-based pharmaceutical companies Novartis International AG and Roche Applied Science to set up their R&D centers in Taiwan, Hsieh said the government would have to first set up a few centers of excellence, such as in liver disease.
The conference took place at the Taipei International Convention Center yesterday, with “adding value to biomedical translational medicine” being its main theme. Hsieh said ITRI’s international business center would focus on linking the laboratory and the “patient’s bedside” this year — often referred to as “bench to bedside” — and encouraging transregional cooperation.
Biotech experts from seven foreign countries were invited by ITRI to share their experiences and national policies regarding translational medicine at the conference yesterday, in an effort to foster cross-regional interaction and translational medicine collaboration in the Asia-Pacific region.
Hypermarket chain Carrefour Taiwan and upscale supermarket chain Mia C’bon on Saturday announced the suspension of their partnership with Jkopay Co (街口支付), one of Taiwan’s largest digital payment providers, amid a lawsuit involving its parent company. Carrefour and Mia C’bon said they would notify customers once Jkopay services are reinstated. The two retailers joined an array of other firms in suspending their partnerships with Jkopay. On Friday night, popular beverage chain TP Tea (茶湯會) also suspended its use of the platform, urging customers to opt for alternative payment methods. Another drinks brand, Guiji (龜記), on Friday said that it is up to individual
READY TO BUY: Shortly after Nvidia announced the approval, Chinese firms scrambled to order the H20 GPUs, which the company must send to the US government for approval Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) late on Monday said the technology giant has won approval from US President Donald Trump’s administration to sell its advanced H20 graphics processing units (GPUs) used to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to China. The news came in a company blog post late on Monday and Huang also spoke about the coup on China’s state-run China Global Television Network in remarks shown on X. “The US government has assured Nvidia that licenses will be granted, and Nvidia hopes to start deliveries soon,” the post said. “Today, I’m announcing that the US government has approved for us
UNCERTAINTIES: Exports surged 34.1% and private investment grew 7.03% to outpace expectations in the first half, although US tariffs could stall momentum The Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) yesterday raised its GDP growth forecast to 3.05 percent this year on a robust first-half performance, but warned that US tariff threats and external uncertainty could stall momentum in the second half of the year. “The first half proved exceptionally strong, allowing room for optimism,” CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) said. “But the growth momentum may slow moving forward due to US tariffs.” The tariff threat poses definite downside risks, although the scale of the impact remains unclear given the unpredictability of US President Donald Trump’s policies, Lien said. Despite the headwinds, Taiwan is likely
The National Stabilization Fund (NSF, 國安基金) is to continue supporting local shares, as uncertainties in international politics and the economy could affect Taiwanese industries’ global deployment and corporate profits, as well as affect stock movement and investor confidence, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement yesterday. The NT$500 billion (US$17.1 billion) fund would remain active in the stock market as the US’ tariff measures have not yet been fully finalized, which would drive international capital flows and global supply chain restructuring, the ministry said after the a meeting of the fund’s steering committee. Along with ongoing geopolitical risks and an unfavorable
RSS