Taiwan has a ways to go before it comes close to reaching the government’s lofty biomedicine targets.

The News Lens
Date: 2018/09/06
By: Matthew Fulco
Taiwan’s biomedicine industry has many of the ingredients for success. The island has strong scientific talent, rich clinical-trial experience, abundant capital, a treasure trove of medical data (from the National Health Insurance system), information-technology expertise, and strong intellectual property rights protection bolstered by the recent passage of legislation to tighten patent safeguards for pharmaceuticals.

The Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) administration has signaled strong support for biomedicine by including it as one of the sectors in its 5+2 Industrial Innovation Plan, which aims to reduce Taiwan’s dependence on contract manufacturing and move the island up the global value chain. “The government wants to take advantage of Taiwan’s existing industrial foundation to help the country upgrade itself at a faster pace and become more competitive,” Tsai was quoted as saying by the Central News Agency in an October 2017 report.

Under 5+2, the government has set an ambitious target for biomedicine: by 2025 reach a production value exceeding NT$1 trillion (US$32.6 billion), develop and market 20 new drugs, introduce 80 new medical devices to the market, and cultivate a minimum of 10 “flagship health-service brands,” according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

“The government’s goal is to transform Taiwan into an Asian biomedical hub,” says David Silver, president of Taipei-based Biotech East, a life science business and marketing consulting firm. To reach the government’s target, the biomedicine industry would need to grow three-fold in the next seven years. In 2016, its production value was NT$315 billion (US$10.3 billion), up from NT$298.6 billion a year earlier, according to MOEA data.
[FULL  STORY]