Oneness Biotech Co on Wednesday made the largest global depositary receipt issuance of any Taiwanese biotech firm and the largest outside the electronics sector. The announcement of the issuance by the Taipei-based company highlights the growing importance of biotech research amid the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the focus on the aging populations of many developed countries, including Taiwan.
The announcement came a day after Vice President William Lai (賴清德) called for researchers to make better use of health data provided by the National Health Insurance Administration.
Lai said that big data has already been successfully applied to combating the spread of the novel coronavirus in Taiwan, as well as in the development of smart and precision medicine — which could be better exploited.
Taiwan is particularly well-equipped to make strides in biotech, given its experience in the technology and medical sectors. Taiwan also faces fewer barriers to fund biotech research, as a large number of Taiwanese politicians, Lai included, have medical backgrounds, and health officials are given a great deal of autonomy and decisionmaking power.
For example, former vice president Chen Chien-jen (陳建仁) has been praised for his handling of the SARS outbreak in 2003, and when news of COVID-19 emerged at the beginning of this year, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) was put in charge of the Central Epidemic Command Center, where his advice was implemented without question.
Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) — a trained surgeon — was also quick to cancel public events and make masks mandatory on the city’s public transit system.
Given Taiwan’s achievements in public health and its technological prowess, there is little stopping it from becoming a world leader in biotechnology. About 48.2 percent of biotech companies operate out of the US, so it would be a great partner for Taiwan.
After US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar visited Taipei in August, he told reporters that bilateral trade issues were discussed. He also praised Taiwan’s health efforts, saying: “Taiwan’s approach to combating [COVID-19] through openness, transparency and cooperation stands in stark contrast to the country where the virus began.”
The US has also grown concerned about its reliance on China for medical supplies.
“Chinese pharmaceutical companies have supplied more than 90 percent of US antibiotics, vitamin C, ibuprofen and hydrocortisone, as well as 70 percent of acetaminophen and 40 to 45 percent of heparin in recent years,” the New York Times reported on March 11, citing Yanzhong Huang (黃嚴忠), a senior fellow for global health at the US Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
US officials, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, have been pushing to reduce reliance on China. Although Navarro would like to see more things made in the US, growing distrust in Washington toward China could signal greater opportunities for Taiwan — particularly in research. If Taiwan and the US were to combine their biotech efforts, and boost their pharmaceutical and vaccine production, they could bypass Chinese supply and quality issues.
However, biotech research budgets in the US, Japan and Europe have grown by only 1.6 percent annually in the past few years, while China’s budget has increased by 9.1 percent annually, data published by Marketline showed. There are likely to be fewer barriers to funding biotech research in Taiwan than there would be in the US.
Taiwan should clearly communicate to US officials and researchers that it offers a competitive and safe partnership, boosting its case to become a regional hub for US and Japanese biotech research.
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