Pharmaceutical Industries

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Harriet Singleton
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1 Taiwan Biotech and the Pharmaceutical Industries Chei-Hsiang Chen, Ph.D. Director, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan The government has a national plan for the biotech industry that gives back to 1995, when it promulgated The Promotion Plan for the Biotech Industry and outlined the necessary actions to make sure that these goals will be achieved. Introduction Since the 1980s, the biotech industry has been regarded by the Taiwanese government as an industry of particular importance to the country s future. For this reason, law and policy makers have over the years drafted and implemented supervisory and promotion policies with the aim of guiding the biotech industry to a position of prominence. The government has a national plan for the biotech industry that stretches back to 1995, when it promulgated The Promotion Plan for the Biotech Industry and outlined the necessary actions to make sure that these goals will be achieved. The most recent amendments made to this plan were released in These goals aim to establish Taiwan as the center for genomic research and the leading location for clinical trials, and to establish Taiwan as the most vibrant biotech-focused venture capital industry in the Asia Pacific region. With the government s ambitions for the biotech industry well documented, the opportunity for international participation is apparent. Taiwan s advantages over regional neighboring countries are obvious. First, Taiwan has already successfully developed several high-tech industries, and this experience is easily transferable to biotech industry development. Second, Taiwan s 164 universities APBN Vol. 11 No

2 Table 1. Status of Taiwan s biotech and pharmaceutical industries (2006) Industry sector Emerging Pharmaceuticals biotechnology Revenue* No. of companies (154 with cgmp) No. of employees Exports* Imports* Domestic sales: exports 60:40 82:18 Domestic market* * Units: US$ billion, US$1.0 = NT$33.0, as of July Source: Data rearranged by the Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, July provide an ample flow of well-educated young talent. Third, the government has taken a proactive policy stand towards the biotech R&D, manufacturing, and production capacities. This attention to the industry s development has paid off, with the industry creating many investment opportunities at the same time that research achievements from several worldclass academic research institutions have gained international prominence. Taiwan has been improving both the infrastructure and R&D activities for biotech industry development. Taiwan s biotech industry capabilities have been greatly enhanced through the combined supportive efforts of the government, academic, and corporate sectors, with many research projects having been successfully translated into technology development and further into product commercialization. Biotech Industry Status Taiwan s biotech industry comprises three major sectors: emerging biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. The current status of the emerging biotech and pharmaceutical industries in Taiwan is shown in Table 1. The business scope of the emerging biotech sector covers the fields of protein drugs, monoclonal antibodies, vaccines, health foods, agricultural and environmental biotechnology (i.e. biopesticides, industrial enzymes, etc.), diagnostic kits, and bioinformatics. In 2006, Taiwan s emerging biotech sector had 253 companies, with a total revenue of US$1.21 billion, a 10% increase over the 2005 figures. However, with few exceptions, most of the biotech companies are small- to medium-sized in capital, and are only in the technology/product development stage. As for the pharmaceutical sector, the industry is split into four subsectors: active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), generics, new pharmaceuticals, and traditional Chinese herbal medicines. Presently, there are 154 local pharmaceutical and 71 traditional Chinese herbal medicine companies, which are fully compliant with Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) and current GMP (cgmp). The total revenue of the domestic pharmaceutical industry in 2006 was around US$1.95 billion. According to data provided 836 APBN Vol. 11 No

3 by the National Health Insurance Bureau, the total domestic pharmaceutical market is around US$3.39 billion. Over US$3.5 billion of investment has been funneled into biotech investment since 2001, with investments in 2006 exceeding US$720 million. The major biotech and pharmaceutical companies in Taiwan are listed in Tables 2 and 3, respectively. Table 2. Major biotech companies in Taiwan Company Establishment Capital Business scope (US$ million) Abnova Monoclonal antibody AbGenomics Monoclonal antibody AdImmune (P) Vaccine CytoPharm Interferon Dr Chip Biotech (P) Bio/Gene chip Formosa Biomedical Technology Diagnostics GenMont Biotech Probiotics King Car Food HPV diagnostics MicroBio (P) Nutraceuticals Mycenax Biotech Biologics CMO Phalanx Bio/Gene chips, microarray ScinoPharm Biotech Biologics Simpson Biotech Microbial products Tai-Lin Biotech Orchids Taiwan Genome Sciences Bioinformatics, microarray Taiwan Advance Bio-Pharm Diagnostic kits Taiwan Flower Biotech Flower production UBI Asia Vaccine, diagnostics 18.Vita Genomics Genomics Table 3. Major pharmaceutical companies in Taiwan Company Establishment Capital Business scope (US$ million) Advanced International Pharmaceutical Nanotech Nanomedicines China Chemical and Pharmaceutical (P) Generics Genovate New drug development and formulation Orient Europharma Generics, nutraceuticals Pharma Essentia New drug development PharmaEngine New drug development PhytoHealth (P) Botanical drugs Saittarius Life Science (P) Botanical drugs ScinoPharm Taiwan Active pharmaceutical ingredients Sheng Chang Pharmaceutical Chinese herbal medicines Sinphar Pharmaceutical (P) Chinese herbal medicines, nutraceuticals Standard Chem. & Pharm. (P) Generics Synmax Biochemical Active pharmaceutical ingredients Synmosa Biopharma (P) New drug development Syngen Biotech Active pharmaceutical ingredients Taigen Biotechnology New drug development Taiwan Biotech Active pharmaceutical ingredients TDW Pharmaceutical New drug development TTY Biopharm Generics, new drug development Yung Shin Pharma Industry (P) Generics, new drug development Note: P, public company. APBN Vol. 11 No

Biotech Industry Clusters Currently, Taiwan has 164 universities with more than 80 incubation centers within the campuses; 18 medical centers; a growing number of science-based industrial parks; and

Health Research Institute (NHRI), all of which are involved in biotech-related research activities.

4 Biotech Industry Clusters Currently, Taiwan has 164 universities with more than 80 incubation centers within the campuses; 18 medical centers; a growing number of science-based industrial parks; and government and private nonprofit research institutes such as Academia Sinica, the Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), and the National Health Research Institute (NHRI), all of which are involved in biotech-related research activities. The government has plans to bring together the R&D capabilities of these government, academic, and research institutes in order to establish biotech industry clusters, promoting the industry by concentrating all of the essential elements in one place. Hsinchu county In the northern part of Taiwan, the Taipei area especially the Nangang Biotech Plaza, which houses two incubation centers (the Biotech Incubation Center, Small and Medium Enterprise Administration, Ministry of Economic Affairs; and the Incubation Center, Genomic Research Center, Academia Sinica) and more than 50 biotech companies is a major focal point. In addition, the Hsinchu county is the home of Taiwan s first science-based industrial park, which has been set up to help the development of high-tech industries. Through combined efforts with the park administration and the companies located inside the park, these institutions have formed a long-term cooperation structure that integrates the governmental, academic, and industrial sectors closely together. 838 APBN Vol. 11 No

5 To ensure Taiwan s continuous economic growth and global competitiveness, the government is actively pursuing strategies that will foster and cultivate this emerging biotech industry. International Cooperation and Presence In order to better internationalize Taiwan s biotech industry, the government has set up a network of international contact channels between Taiwanese trade offices established abroad and international trade offices based in Taiwan. The close relationship between the Taiwanese government and foreign governments trade offices in Taiwan has already attracted both foreign investments and international collaborative R&D projects. The Taiwanese government has also actively promoted participation in major international conferences and exhibitions, such as BIO, Biovision/Biosquare, BioAsia, BioJapan, etc. The government s efforts to organize national delegations to these activities together with the support of related promotional events, forums, and international opportunities assist in better exposing Taiwan s biotech industry to the international community. Through technology transfers and strategic alliances, the government aims to achieve 18 successful biotech investment cases by 2010, and to promote Taiwan as a gateway for international biotech companies seeking business opportunities in the Asia-Pacific region. Challenges and Future Perspectives The biotech industry is expected to play a vital role in the future economic growth of Taiwan. To ensure Taiwan s continuous economic growth and global competitiveness, the government is actively pursuing strategies that will foster and cultivate this emerging biotech industry. Both innovation and technological development are critical to the sustainable development of Taiwan s biotech and pharmaceutical industries, while local companies are focusing particularly on improvement at the technical level. The relatively high percentage of self-developed technologies is proof of Taiwan s excellent R&D capabilities, with local companies showing the ability to successfully convert R&D results into commercial products. The government has also enacted many development policies, including incentives such as R&D grants, tax exemptions, clinical research grants, etc. The challenge for new drug development companies is solving the cash flow problem; indeed, many biotech and pharmaceutical companies in Taiwan are facing a similar situation. An additional encouragement for the development of the biotech industry came in 2002, when the restrictions on biotech companies seeking to be listed on the TAISDAQ stock exchange were lifted. Companies now no longer require revenue in order to be listed, but instead can show that they have at least patentable technology with commercial potential. Moreover, the Development Fund of the Executive Yuan has also committed significant resources to biotech venture capitals with matching investment available. Taiwan enjoys a pivotal position in the Asia-Pacific region, the area with the fastest rate of economic growth in the world. Sharing an ethnic, historical, and language connection to China, Taiwan APBN Vol. 11 No

6 has been called the gateway to Greater China. In addition, its geographical and cultural proximity to Japan, Korea, and Singapore makes Taiwan the perfect gateway for multinational companies to enter the Asia-Pacific market. Looking into the future, although the developmental progress of the biotech industry in Taiwan is slower than the government s expectations, the combined efforts of the government and private sectors are increasingly bearing fruit, with encouraging news of achievements being made in new drug development. Contact Details: Chei-Hsiang Chen, Ph.D Director, Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan Tel: ext 100 Fax: chchenj@biopharm.org.tw References 1. Spot on Taiwan [advertisement feature]. Nature, April 5, Taiwan: flourish or languishing? [Taiwan life sciences industry, country focus] BioSpectrum (Asia ed.) 1(4): 32 44, Taiwan, a key link in the bioscience global supply chain. BioSpectrum (Asia ed.) 1(1): 40, Introduction to Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries in Taiwan. Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Industries Program Office, Ministry of Economic Affairs, Taiwan, APBN Vol. 11 No

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