(Taiwan) Forum discusses Taiwan's role as springboard to China and other Asia-Pacific biomedical markets

(BiotechEast)1 July, 2011 Held a day before the annual Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) convention, concluding this week in Washington DC, a forum took place June 26 in Rockville, Maryland, examining Taiwan's strengths in biosciences and its unique position as a stepping stone into China and emerging Asia-Pacific markets for US and European firms. Attended by over 200, the forum entitled 'The Biotech Business Potential of Taiwan as a Springboard to Asia-Pacific' featured presentations by Taiwan industry and government representatives as well as US company executives with first-hand experience with Taiwan. The forum's keynote speech, entitled 'Taiwan Biotech Strategies', was given by Dr. Cyrus C.Y. Chu, Minister without Portfolio, The Executive Yuan, Taiwan. Chu first explained that Taiwan's niche is in developing upstream R&D. "But we need to bridge the gap between academia and industry, as many of these inventions do not get to the downstream process value adding chain," he added. "So, after consulting with invited industry experts, we decided to focus on the so called 'second runner' stage, from patent development through to clinical Phase II. Because Phase III is so costly, we'll leave that to Big Pharma." This and other industry development strategies, including a new large scale venture capital fund and startup-assistance services, all part of the government's new 'Diamond Action Plan for Biotech Takeoff' were further explained by Chu and others during the forum as a way of leveraging Taiwan's strengths, with benefits for both Taiwan companies and overseas collaborators. Dr. Jeff Wang, President of the Taiwan's Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), talked about recent biomedical collaborations between Taiwan and global companies as well as Taiwan-China collaborations, and the attraction of China to Western pharma companies. "Pharmaceutical market growth rate is around 14-16 percent for developing countries, but for more mature markets only 1-3 percent. For China, the growth rate is over 20 percent. That's why Western companies come East; market expansion, cost-effective drug manufacturing, and a large clinical patient population. And East needs West's help, as it needs new innovation technology to develop new drugs," he explained. And with the landmark Economic Cooperation Framework Agreement (ECFA) bilateral trade accord between Taiwan and China, signed in 2010, comes the prospect of regulation harmonization and what it will bring to the table. "We work with lots of US companies," said Dr. Benjamin Chien, CEO of services firm QPS Holdings, USA. "We say that Taiwan has good qualities, but these companies all have their eyes on China. It's hard to convince them to look at Taiwan. But clinical trials in Taiwan are so superior, and with ECFA [regulatory harmonization] in place, once a company knows that study data conducted in Taiwan will be accepted in China, they will look to Taiwan because the risk will be much lower." Industry consultant and one of the forum's featured speakers, Dr. Whaijen Soo, elaborated. "Where and who you can trust but still have the access to China, to East Asia? I can tell you that it's Taiwan. It's not the only alternative, but it's the strongest alternative to develop and launch products in China." What about long-standing political differences between the Republic of China (Taiwan), and the People's Republic of China? Will these differences ever be reconciled enough to enable such smooth business cooperation? Dr. Joe Harford, in charge of international affairs at the National Cancer Institute, USA, talked on this issue from his unique perspective, being responsible of putting together 'health diplomacy' cancer research initiatives. These included projects involving Cyprus, Turkey, Jordan and Israel; and a long-standing project involving Ireland and Northern Ireland. "There's an Arab quote: 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' If we can recognize that cancer is our common enemy, then there's a lot that we can do together, even in areas where political tension may exist," he explained. This could be the model for Taiwan-China collaborations, he posited. And with the National Cancer Institute hosting both post-doc researchers from China and Taiwan, there's added possibilities. "The NCI has about 1,000 visiting research fellows a year. China is now the number one provider of researchers from outside US with 181. There are also 13 from Taiwan. To date, there has not been a systematic attempt to bring these two groups together. One of the things that I would suggest is working with these future scientists together that are already working in NCI labs," he said. And with cancer a research specialty among Taiwanese, it seems a good fit, he added. The Taiwan government has been working on its own initiatives as well. DCB Chairman Dr. Johnsee Lee mentioned that recent reduced corporate tax rates have made Taiwan's business environment more attractive for foreign investors. "Corporate income tax has been reduced from 25 to 17 percent. Also a reduction in asset and gift tax, from 50 to 10 percent, both major tax reductions that will encourage investment in Taiwan." Lee also praised the consistently strong and positive support the government has given to the biotech industry in recent years. Christopher Linthwaite, President, Bioproduction Business Platform, of services provider Life Technologies, USA, and one of the featured speakers at the event, also praised Taiwan's comparative advantages. "Taiwan's strengths are in its education levels, employee talent and easy access to the service support ecosystem," said Linthwaite. While he also applauded recent tax reductions and gave high marks to the government for its industry support, Linthwaite added that comparative advantage can be eroded over time, and Taiwan still had to find its niche within the biosciences. "Look for opportunities that are not apparent. For example, information management, the convergence of biology, chemistry, nanotechnology. We don't know how these will develop. But these will create new industries that don't exist today, new value propositions that don't exist today. Look to the future and find a new space that will carve out Taiwan's role as part of the global network that is required to make the biotech industry successful." Highly relevant to the theme of this forum, Dr. Ming-Chu Hsu, CEO of TaiGen Biotechnology, explained how TaiGen runs a model that ties in Taiwan and China with global pharmaceutical companies. Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan and with a subsidiary in China, as well as developing its own NCEs TaiGen also in-licenses early stage drug candidates from overseas, taking them up to Phase III trials before out-licensing them to Big Pharma for further development and marketing in the West, with TaiGen keeping China market rights. "TaiGen's key value is we have a very innovative pipeline with full IP protection, highly productive discovery scientists, and a clinical team that can conduct multinational trials. In China we can conduct trials and get into the local market faster and with much less cost [than other companies can]," Hsu said. "Our vision is driven by the global market," she concluded. The forum was also the venue for the signing of Memorandums of Understanding (MOU) between the Development Center for Biotechnology and three US companies. The first with Life Technologies, was for a joint initiative to set up for a biomanufacturing training center in Taiwan, with Life Technologies providing planning and consulting services for the project. MOUs with Contract Research Organizations (CRO) Ricerca Biosciences and QPS Holdings were also signed, both for the promotion of CRO services within Taiwan.