Speaker touts biotech act's effectiveness amid funding controversy

 Central News Agency  2011-12-15 Taipei, Dec. 15 (CNA) Legislative Yuan Speaker Wang Jin-pyng said Thursday that a law passed in 2007 on government investment in the development of biotechnology and new drugs has allowed Taiwan to outpace Singapore and even catch up with Japan in the field. "I don't know who authored the act, but I do know that the statute has enabled our biotech industry to thrive with adequate government support," said Wang, one of the sponsors of the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry. Wang was referring to a newspaper report that opposition Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen had told a former de facto U.S. ambassador to Taiwan in 2007 that the act was largely her work during her vice premiership in the DPP administration. According to the United Daily News (UDN) report, Tsai, after leaving her Cabinet post, told Stephen Young, then-American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) Taipei director, that she had long helped promote the development of Taiwan's biotech industry and had drafted the act regulating government funding in new drug production and the biotech industry as well as tax incentives for investors and researchers. Citing a recently released Chinese-language book titled "WikiLeaks Taiwan," the UDN report further said Tsai told Young that she had closely cooperated with Wang, a heavyweight in the Kuomintang (KMT) to push for the passage of the act. The UDN report came amid accusations from KMT lawmakers that Tsai might have been guilty of conflict of interest by approving government investment in a biotect startup following the passage of the act when she knew she would become the venture's chairwoman. Tsai has denied the allegations, saying she was not involved in the investment project while she was vice premier and was only invited by scientists to join TaiMed Biologics months after leaving public service. Asked about his views on the UDN report, Wang said Tsai, accompanied by Academia Sinica head Chi-Huey Wong and then-National Science Council Minister Chen Chien-jen, presented the draft version of the biotech development act to him. "Tsai told me that the bill was patterned after U.S. legislation in order to inject new momentum into our sluggish biotech sector," Wang recalled, adding that Tsai asked him to be the chief sponsor of the act. The bill cleared the legislative floor soon after its presentation as most lawmakers wanted to see the local biotech sector thrive, Wang said. "Since its passage, our biotech industry has developed smoothly with investment from home and abroad," he added. In the past few years, Wang said, some 20 to 30 new drugs developed in Taiwan have entered first-stage clinical trials approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and seven of them have advanced to third-stage clinical trials. "The approval of every such case is a major event in the biotech world," Wang said. The advancement in the biotech field has also helped upgrade Taiwan's status in global biotechnology and pharmaceutical development, he noted.