Biotech Industry Races to Embrace the New Precision Medicine Trend, Building a Protective Mountain Range for the Nation

(Taiwan TB News Network / Reporter Chen Mingzong) The Advanced Biotech Industry Policy Catchball Forum, bringing together industry experts, was held on the 28th. The forum examined policy alignment from an industry perspective, hoping that through cross-sector exchange it could further explore the most promising approaches to public-private collaboration, so as to accelerate the implementation and advancement of industrial policy, achieve the goal of rapid development of Taiwan's biomedical industry, and together raise a vigorous east wind for the flourishing growth of Taiwan's biotech industry.

The biotech industry is a key industry in the nation's economic development. In addition, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the epidemic prevention and response efforts launched by countries around the world have made biotech and pharmaceuticals one of President Tsai's six core strategic industries. The Executive Yuan formulates policy directions and puts forward overall recommendations each year through the Biotechnology Industry Strategy Advisory Committee (BTC) meeting. This year's BTC meeting concluded smoothly on September 1, and in response to the COVID-19 pandemic it triggered a number of strategic opinions very closely tied to industry.

With the support and leadership of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the Development Center for Biotechnology, a foundation that has cultivated industrial technology for many years, manages cooperative network relationships with industry, is closest to industry, and is most familiar with the path to industrialization. Shortly after the BTC meeting, it quickly proposed corresponding measures for the biotech industry policy recommendations. To facilitate policy implementation, it joined with the Taiwan Bio Industry Organization and the Chinese Medical Research and Development Association to jointly convene the Biotech Industry Policy Catchball Forum, hoping to connect industry players to take the initiative on industrial policy, catch the ball precisely, and respond quickly.

The forum invited participants including Yang Pan-chyr, Vice Chairman of the National Health Research Institutes? No — Vice Chairman of the National Biotechnology and Medical Care Industry Promotion Association, Chang Hung-jen, Chairman of Sunteam Biotech? No — Chairman of Sunteam Biotech, Chen Hua-chien, CEO of ACT Genomics, Chen Kang-wei, President of AstraZeneca, Chen Chun-cheng, Medical Director of Adimmune, Liu Li-cheng, General Manager of EirGenix, Tseng Hui-chin, Honorary Vice President of PwC Taiwan, and Li Yi-chen, General Manager of Amgen Taiwan, to participate in the forum and engage in in-depth and wide-ranging discussions on how to implement precision medicine / regenerative medicine / digital medicine industries and concrete action thinking for building an innovative biomanufacturing CDMO industry.

DCB Chairman Twu Shiing-jer stated that in her 2020 inaugural address, President Tsai declared the creation of the "six core strategic industries," specifically incorporating the biotech industry into the nation's key development strategic industries. The new draft amendment to the Biotech New Drug Act? No — the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals simultaneously included CDMO in the scope of tax incentives for the first time, demonstrating the determination to fully develop the biotech industry.

DCB CEO Wu Chung-hsun pointed out that over the years the BTC meeting has continued to propose overall recommendation directions on talent, funding, regulations, and international connections. Under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the meeting's conclusions put forward strategic recommendations for developing CDMO for vaccines and medicines. DCB is a foundation-supported institution under the Ministry of Economic Affairs' long-term science and technology program. It hopes that through this forum it can comprehensively integrate recommendations from experts and scholars across all sectors, connect resources, use public-private partnership (PPP) to lay the foundation for infrastructure, optimize the development environment for the biotech industry, accelerate Taiwan's biomedical digital transformation, and fully meet the new challenges of the post-pandemic era.

At present, DCB has separately drafted various implementation strategies for the four major recommendations put forward by committee members after the BTC meeting. In terms of improving the ecosystem, it emphasizes the cultivation and recruitment of cross-disciplinary talent domestically and internationally. DCB can integrate the talent cultivation plans and resources of various ministries and commissions to establish a key talent cultivation platform for Taiwan's biomedical industry.

In terms of building a health big data platform, in coordination with promoting smart healthcare regulatory sandbox innovative applications, DCB focuses on the use of big data to assist drug development. It has established a team and possesses integrated capabilities such as mining international biomedical databases, cleaning and adding value to databases, and bioinformatics computing……, and can assist industry in developing data application products (such as: SaMD) to accelerate drug development efficiency and success rates. To promote public-private partnership operation of the big data platform, DCB has both research and business development capabilities, is thoroughly familiar with domestic academic and research resources, and has experience negotiating cooperation with major international companies. It can assist our health big data platform in connecting internationally and accelerate the development of the digital health industry.

Regarding the deployment of the innovative biomanufacturing CDMO industry, DCB, based on its past experience in mass production of biotech drugs and plant construction, has already prepared a team to quickly invest in the establishment of long-chain mRNA production, LNP encapsulation technology, tissue-targeted delivery systems, and insect cell production technology. At the same time, it is also investing in nucleic acid drugs and key process development. Echoing BTC committee members' point that the decisive factors for building CDMO for vaccines and emerging pharmaceuticals are the 4S: Science, Speed, Scope, and Scale, DCB quickly took stock of the production capacity of our protein drug and vaccine commercial mass production plants, drafted a plan for a nucleic acid drug CDMO plant capable of reaching a production capacity of 1 billion doses, and actively linked with domestic industry while seeking strategic investment support, hoping to once again replicate the successful experience of spinning off EirGenix from DCB.
             DCB Chairman Twu Shiing-jer (third from right), Vice Chairman of the National Biotechnology and Medical Care Industry Promotion Association Yang Pan-chyr (second from right), and DCB CEO Wu Chung-hsun (first from right)