The government has been focused on the biotechnology industry since 1984, when it set up a biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry development promotion task force. In 2007, it passed the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry (生技新藥產業發展條例), and following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year, the biotech industry has garnered even more attention.
FAILED PROGRAMS
However, a look at the “two trillion, twin star” program in 2002, the “six key emerging industries” program in 2009, the “5+2 industrial innovation” program in 2016 and last year’s “six core strategic industries” program shows that there has been progress in the industry, but not as much as expected.
The industry has not driven economic development in the same way that the semiconductor industry did, and insufficient international integration has failed to produce world-class companies or unicorns and it cannot compare with South Korea’s beauty and biotech OEM industries.
The value of Taiwan’s biotech industry is less than NT$600 billion (US$21.39 million), and it has only created about 100,000 job opportunities. There are several reasons for the limited results over the past four decades.
First, Taiwan’s social welfare environment and regulations are not conducive to the industry’s development, as healthcare is based on a non-profit policy. This is different from the semiconductor and other industries, which are mainly for-profit.
Second, many biotech firms had insufficient revenue and profit, but chose to list as “category 3 stocks” (now classified as tech stocks). They used publicity and speculation to attract funds from capital markets, while the government provided incentives in the form of rent and tax subsidies.
The result is that some biotech firms took shortcuts and speculated in stock. Moreover, a lack of capital and research and development talent made wide-scale human testing difficult, while insufficient international integration made building a complete supply chain a challenge.
Third, a lack of understanding of foreign pharmaceutical companies, difficulties obtaining information, incomplete understanding of regulations in other countries, differences in interpretation of provisions and disputes over agency or cooperation contracts often resulted in losses for local pharmaceutical and biotech companies that intend to enter the international market. Worse still, the authorities overseeing stock exchanges did not verify unclear information from other countries and imposed severe penalties, making matters worse.
VITAL ISSUES
The biotech industry faces many challenges. How can regulations be relaxed for the industry to facilitate cooperation with the high-tech industry, academics, development institutions and the medical sector? How will it raise capital, cultivate talent, create a complete supply chain and become a functional industry developing high-end biotech medicine and health and medical equipment? How will it tap into the distinct characteristics of individual markets to venture into the international market? How will it do these things with the support of the government and fair treatment from regulators, thus creating a new benchmark industry?
These are important issues that must be addressed by the industrial, government, academic, research and healthcare sectors.
Lee Shen-yi is a national policy adviser and vice chairman of the Contemporary Taiwan Development Foundation.
Translated by Perry Svensson
From the Iran war and nuclear weapons to tariffs and artificial intelligence, the agenda for this week’s Beijing summit between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is packed. Xi would almost certainly bring up Taiwan, if only to demonstrate his inflexibility on the matter. However, no one needs to meet with Xi face-to-face to understand his stance. A visit to the National Museum of China in Beijing — in particular, the “Road to Rejuvenation” exhibition, which chronicles the rise and rule of the Chinese Communist Party — might be even more revealing. Xi took the members
The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) on Friday used their legislative majority to push their version of a special defense budget bill to fund the purchase of US military equipment, with the combined spending capped at NT$780 billion (US$24.78 billion). The bill, which fell short of the Executive Yuan’s NT$1.25 trillion request, was passed by a 59-0 margin with 48 abstentions in the 113-seat legislature. KMT Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文), who reportedly met with TPP Chairman Huang Kuo-chang (黃國昌) for a private meeting before holding a joint post-vote news conference, was said to have mobilized her
The inter-Korean relationship, long defined by national division, offers the clearest mirror within East Asia for cross-strait relations. Yet even there, reunification language is breaking down. The South Korean government disclosed on Wednesday last week that North Korea’s constitutional revision in March had deleted references to reunification and added a territorial clause defining its border with South Korea. South Korea is also seriously debating whether national reunification with North Korea is still necessary. On April 27, South Korean President Lee Jae-myung marked the eighth anniversary of the Panmunjom Declaration, the 2018 inter-Korean agreement in which the two Koreas pledged to
I wrote this before US President Donald Trump embarked on his uneventful state visit to China on Thursday. So, I shall confine my observations to the joint US-Philippine military exercise of April 20 through May 8, known collectively as “Balikatan 2026.” This year’s Balikatan was notable for its “firsts.” First, it was conducted primarily with Taiwan in mind, not the Philippines or even the South China Sea. It also showed that in the Pacific, America’s alliance network is still robust. Allies are enthusiastic about America’s renewed leadership in the region. Nine decades ago, in 1936, America had neither military strength
RSS