(BiotechEast staff)3 December, 2012 Ties between Taiwan and the Netherlands go back a long way; way back in fact to when a Dutch colonial government ruled the island from 1624 to 1662. Its last stand at Fort Zeelandia at the site of today's Tainan City, falling to General Koxinga's army from China, put an end of 37 years of rule over local aboriginal and Han Chinese inhabitants.Today, relationships happily are on much better terms. Trade and cultural ties between the two nations are strong. Taiwan exports to the Netherlands totaled US$4.6 billion last year, being mostly of consumer electronics goods. From the Netherlands, imports totaled US$2.9 billion in 2011, with more than 450 investment cases in Taiwan with a total investment of over US$18.4 billion to date.In recent years, one industry sector in particular stands out as being the beneficiary of growing cooperation between the two countries and is a refection of a special kind of synergy that has been building. That industry is the life sciences.More and more, Taiwan's drug development and medical devices companies are building research and business ties with their counterparts in the Netherlands. And these are bilateral ties, with benefits being truly two-way. Biotechnology companies from Taiwan have been setting up operations at Holland's Leiden Bio Science Park, and Dutch companies are beginning to look to Taiwan not only as a market in itself and for its position as a potential stepping stone to China and the rest of Asia, but also as a new location for sourcing technology, investment and manufacturing partnerships.With this series of articles we will examine the beginnings of this special relationship, and take a closer look at the appeal of Leiden Bio Science Park and the Taiwan companies and company executives who call it their European home. We'll also examine what Taiwan has to offer Dutch life science companies, and look at some recent deals in this exciting industry space.Perhaps the person who played the earliest and most influential role in developing this relationship was Taiwan scientist Dr. Andrew Wang, currently Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute of Biological Chemistry, Academia Sinica. Wang is a world-renowned structural biologist with over 400 papers published to his name. He was the first to discover the left-handed 'Z-DNA' form of DNA in 1979, ushering in a new field of novel DNA structures, and also helped understand the structures of many anti-cancer drug-DNA complexes. Wang was also Vice President of Academia Sinica from 2006 to 2011.It's his Z-DNA discovery which has the Dutch connection. Wang explains."I was at MIT as a scientist in the late 1970s, working on structures of nucleic acid, mostly DNA, and the interaction of certain cancers. If you want to do this kind of research, you need DNA material. But at that time it was extremely expensive. One day a biologist came to visit, and discussion got around to talking about DNA material. The biologist was from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands, at the hospital there. He said that they had just recruited a chemist named Jacques van Boom and he was expert at chemical synthesis; in particular, DNA. So we got connected, and I began to interact with this young professor. We asked him to synthesize a number of oligonucleotides, a small fragment of DNA. And low and behold, a month later he came from Leiden to visit us at MIT. He took a vial out of his pocket, saying, 'Here, I have your molecule.'""If you were to buy such an amount at that time, it would cost millions of dollars. He just gave it to us and said, here you are. So we crystallized it and saw the structure, very different from all the other DNA structures. Our DNA was left handed, not right handed."The two scientists wrote a paper about it in 1979 which later was published in the prestigious scientific journals 'Nature' and 'Science'. And the two became good friends."Now it's in every biochemistry textbook, you'll see a left-handed DNA. We called it Z-DNA. I made my fame out of that. And Jacques van Boom also at the same time became famous in Holland and in Europe, all because of the discovery of this Z-DNA."Wang eventually joined Van Boom and his group in the Netherlands, spending six months at his lab at the University of Leiden, learning how to synthesize DNA.Back then Leiden was just a small town, recalled Wang."It was all just canals and farms, nothing much there. But in the late 80s, they began to build the Leiden Bio Sciences Park. Now there's a lot of life science research going on. The level of chemistry there is very good, in large part from Jacques van Boom's fame and influence. He trained many students who went on to become famous themselves."Wang went back to the US and continued his remarkable career, but returned for another six-month visit in 1995, although to a different town, Nijmegen.As time passed, Wang still kept up his ties with the Netherlands, visiting van Boom yearly until his friend passed away in 2004.Wang has fond memories of his time there, and to this day he retains his connections to the country. This year for example Wang joined the Taiwan biotechnology delegation to visit Leiden Bio Science Park in May. The delegation was led by the Ministry of Economic Affairs, (MOEA) and organized by the Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB).The park is now an impressive resource, says Wang."In Taiwan we don't have this kind of park, but that's the kind of facility we are aiming for with our new life science park at Academia Sinica [the National Biotechnology Research Park, completion expected in 2016]. We want it to house some 200 incubator companies. Right now, we do have an incubator center but it only houses about dozen companies."Dr. Nettie Buitelaar, director of the Leiden Bio Science ParkReflecting on the differences between the academic culture of Holland and Taiwan, Wang mentioned that although there are only a handful of universities, standards are high."They are just as smart as we are, but they are more practical. I feel their training is down to earth, solid. They don't have a lot of exams, but that doesn't matter. In nuclear magnetic resonance, for example, Holland is a very tiny country but their research is ranked among the top five. So they specialize at certain things and they are very good at that."Although Academia Sinica and Leiden Bio Science Park have no formal cooperation agreement or structure in place, Wang thinks this should be a goal to pursue."The last time we visited the Leiden park, the reaction was quite positive. There is a good synergy."
Leiden Bio Science Park We caught up with Dr. Nettie Buitelaar, director of the Leiden Bio Science Park, during her recent visit to Taiwan for the BioBusiness Asia conference. We asked her to introduce the park and expand on the Taiwan connection."The park started in 1984, and is one of the oldest of its kind in the Netherlands. It began when there was suddenly a lot of land available at the university hospital, once the hospital got some new buildings. An entrepreneurial-minded professor persuaded the local government to turn this into a biotech-focused science park, which at the time was very visionary.""In the beginning it didn't take off very fast. But recently we've really been growing. We have now over 100 companies in the science park, most of them focusing on drug development. And we house the most publically listed companies of any science park in the country. If you want to be serious about biotech, you should be in our park."Buitelaar has built strong friendships with Taiwan and the Taiwanese, having visited the island many times."First time I visited, I remember thinking what a pleasant surprise to see how developed the country is, how western the way of doing business is, as compared to China for instance, or to other Asian countries.""And also how eager they are to go to Europe. But what I also noticed is that for Taiwanese companies they see Europe as such a labyrinth; many different countries, many different languages, different regulations to bring your product to the market. So they have no clue how to start there. Luckily, we have lots of service companies in the science park that can help firms bring their products to the European market."Taiwan Liposome Company (TLC) was the first company from Taiwan to set up an office at the park, in 2008. Another firm, Aeon Astron, subsidiary of Taiwan's Body Organ Biomedical Corp, a collagen implant and devices company, set up their office the same year, partly to be closer to the university hospital and its famed ophthalmology department.Buitelaar listed off features of the park that make it particularly attractive to Taiwan companies."First of all we are very close to Amsterdam Airport, which has a direct flight to Taiwan via national carrier KLM. It's a 12-hour direct flight. It sounds very simple, but it makes all the difference. And the airport is only 15 minutes by train from our park. Companies do consider this a great benefit. Biotech is so international. So it's people that travel, it's goods that travel ... So, that's one advantage," she said.Another is that Holland offers a lot of tax advantages, particularly with regard to taxing intellectual property assets. This is a significant benefit and many big international companies put their European central office there because of it.And there's a very international flavor at the park. Around 25 percent of the companies housed there are from outside the Netherlands."And we have more than 1,500 people from overseas working in the park. Many work in the university, as the science faculty and the university hospital are also located in our park. So, that's also another advantage; it's a mixture of academics and industry."Mr. Hans Fortuin, Representative of the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office (NTIO) in TaiwanMemorandum of Understanding sets framework for further cooperation With the signing on February 11, 2011, of a 'Memorandum of Understanding' (MOU) between the Department of Industrial Technology, MOEA of Taiwan and the NL Agency of the Netherlands, on bilateral cooperation in research and the development in innovative technologies, business between the two small countries can only get stronger.Mr. Hans Fortuin, Representative of the Netherlands Trade and Investment Office (NTIO) in Taiwan, elaborated on the significance of the MOU."Actually, Taiwan and the Netherlands have enjoyed excellent business relations for a long time. Electronics giant Philips for example invested in [Taiwan's famed semiconductor firm] TSMC in the 1980s. And ASML, a company that makes equipment used in the semiconductor manufacturing industry, is now the Netherlands' biggest investor in Taiwan.""The MOU is not a purpose in itself. It is an instrument to bring together market partners, research institutes, companies, government people. And there we have been quite successful," he said.And the key for both sides to find specific areas of mutual interest."I think Taiwan and the Netherlands need to find each others' comparative advantages. Where are our niches? Because generic trade promotion does not work anymore, we now need tailor-made approaches. Where are we strong? Where is there a demand in the market? And vice versa. A mutual interest."The MOU has provided a framework for both sides to build on existing connections in technology-based industries, with the agreement specifically focusing on the life sciences, green energy and high tech materials sectors. Since it was signed, both sides have been increasing the frequency of their technical exchanges, and life sciences in particular has reaped the benefits.Dr. Daniel Cheng, Vice President, Development Center for Biotechnology, led a delegation on such a technical visit to Leiden Bio Science Park in May of this year.Cheng sees similarities between the two countries. While the Netherlands promotes itself as the gateway to Europe, similarly Taiwan pitches itself as the gateway to China, Cheng noted."Taiwan is also a small country but we too can play an important gateway role. Let's help each other. We can assist companies from the Netherlands get into China, and they can help Taiwanese companies get a foothold in Europe," suggests Cheng."We have other similarities. We both have flexible business cultures, and we love to trade," said Cheng.
