To help Taiwan’s pharmaceutical industry develop medicines against six types of cancer, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) announced that it would launch a pilot program offering genetic testing of cancer patients, the ministry said on Thursday.
The program, developed by the ministry, the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) and Roche Diagnostics Taiwan, would offer testing to more than 1,000 patients at designated hospitals by the second half of this year, it said.
Samples of cancer tissue would be analyzed for mutations to help Roche and other pharmaceutical companies recommend targeted therapies to doctors at the hospitals, the ministry said.
The pilot program would enroll people with advanced-stage stomach, esophageal, gall bladder, pancreatic or bile duct cancer, as well as non-squamous non-small cell lung carcinoma, it said.
For those enrolled in the program, the genetic testing would be free, it said, adding that the paid testing costs about NT$100,000 per patient.
The program would enhance cancer patients’ chance of survival and contribute to the development of precision medicine in Taiwan, Minister of Health and Welfare Chen Shih-chung (陳時中) said at the program’s launch event.
This would include tailoring disease prevention or treatment techniques based on a person’s genes, environment and lifestyle, rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach based on average cancer cases, he said
The program would generate data for the use in drug development and the drug approval process, Chen said.
NHRI president Liang Kung-yee (梁賡義) said that the program marks the first time that the National Biobank Consortium of Taiwan has partnered with an international pharmaceutical company.
Genetic testing under the program would start as early as in the middle of this year, Liang said.
The Ministry of Education (MOE) is to launch a new program to encourage international students to stay in Taiwan and explore job opportunities here after graduation, Deputy Minister of Education Yeh Ping-cheng (葉丙成) said on Friday. The government would provide full scholarships for international students to further their studies for two years in Taiwan, so those who want to pursue a master’s degree can consider applying for the program, he said. The fields included are science, technology, engineering, mathematics, semiconductors and finance, Yeh added. The program, called “Intense 2+2,” would also assist international students who completed the two years of further studies in
The brilliant blue waters, thick foliage and bucolic atmosphere on this seemingly idyllic archipelago deep in the Pacific Ocean belie the key role it now plays in a titanic geopolitical struggle. Palau is again on the front line as China, and the US and its allies prepare their forces in an intensifying contest for control over the Asia-Pacific region. The democratic nation of just 17,000 people hosts US-controlled airstrips and soon-to-be-completed radar installations that the US military describes as “critical” to monitoring vast swathes of water and airspace. It is also a key piece of the second island chain, a string of
Taiwan will now have four additional national holidays after the Legislative Yuan passed an amendment today, which also made Labor Day a national holiday for all sectors. The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) used their majority in the Legislative Yuan to pass the amendment to the Act on Implementing Memorial Days and State Holidays (紀念日及節日實施辦法), which the parties jointly proposed, in its third and final reading today. The legislature passed the bill to amend the act, which is currently enforced administratively, raising it to the legal level. The new legislation recognizes Confucius’ birthday on Sept. 28, the
A magnitude 5.9 earthquake that struck about 33km off the coast of Hualien City was the "main shock" in a series of quakes in the area, with aftershocks expected over the next three days, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Prior to the magnitude 5.9 quake shaking most of Taiwan at 6:53pm yesterday, six other earthquakes stronger than a magnitude of 4, starting with a magnitude 5.5 quake at 6:09pm, occurred in the area. CWA Seismological Center Director Wu Chien-fu (吳健富) confirmed that the quakes were all part of the same series and that the magnitude 5.5 temblor was