Taiwan’s biotech industry ready for takeoff

07/04/2011 Source： Taiwan Today   Taiwan's biotechnology sector is poised to become the nation's next trillion-dollar industry thanks to a fresh infusion of human and financial resources, according to officials with the Executive Yuan's Science and Technology Group. The officials said July 4 the government is injecting the equivalent of a "cardiac stimulant" into the biotech industry, so that it can rival the semiconductor and panel industries, capable of generating trillions of New Taiwan dollars in revenues every year. They said the National Development Fund will soon approve the allocation of resources to the Taiwan Medtech Fund, an NT$60 billion (US$2.08 billion) venture capital company to be jointly owned by the public and private sectors. To be headed by Jang Yue-teh, general partner in the Vertical Group, a venture capital firm in the U.S. focusing on the biomedical field, the TMF will nurture the nation's biotech industry by providing seed money to promising startups, the officials added. The state-sponsored Supra Incubation Center will further help the biotech industry by providing a platform where all those involved can find legal assistance on intellectual property rights. The SIC will also provide consultation services to biotech industries, and coordinate efforts between them and the TMF. The SIC will be overseen by expatriate and noted biotech researcher Soo Whai-jen, senior division president of U.S.-based Shire PLC. Minister without Portfolio Cyrus C.Y. Chu stressed that the biotech industry is full of potential but also extremely competitive. He said the governments of both Singapore and South Korea are devoting vast resources to helping their biotech industries. "If Taiwan does not act quickly, it could soon find that the window of opportunity for the entire industry has been closed," he warned. Chu said he recently met with expatriate Jane H. Hsiao, chief technology officer of Opko Health Inc., in Washington D.C., to persuade her to come home to head another public-private biotech venture capital firm. In related news, China Steel Corp. announced June 16 that it will invest NT$500 million in a biotech startup company. Additionally, Epitomics Inc., one of the world's major pharmaceutical companies, best known for creating rabbit monoclonal antibodies, is planning for market listing in Taiwan, according to the Taiwan Stock Exchange Corp. (HZW)