Taiwan will send a 200-plus member delegation to this year’s BIO International Convention from June 3rd to 6th in Philadelphia. Hosted by the US-headquartered Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), this annual convention is considered to be the most important business event for the biotechnology industry. This year marks the 26th holding of the event, and is expected to attract more than 16,000 biomedical industry experts and more than 7,000 doctors and healthcare professionals from 67 countries.
Led by Minister without Portfolio Wu Tsung-Tsong of the Executive Yuan, the Taiwan delegation group, a combination of governmental representatives, private sectors and research communities, is the 10th largest group of all participating countries. The following government agencies will be accompanied to the event: the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MHW), the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), and the Council of Agriculture. Research institutes sending delegates include Academia Sinica and several government funded research organizations.
These representatives will join more than 40 biotech companies at the exhibition’s Taiwan Pavilion, where Taiwan’s biomedical research achievements and industry development will be showcased and emphasized at the global gathering. This year, we expect to host more than 400 business meetings over the course of the exhibition to create international cooperation and expand new business opportunities. Since 2017,Taiwan government actively promoted “Biomedical Industry Innovation Program” to “cluster” companies, organizations and ministries together to form partnerships in funding, research and business strategy. This joint effort has been globally recognized by the famous Biopharmaceutical Competitiveness & Investment (BCI) Survey of Pugatch Consilim that listed Taiwan as the second-ranked country in emerging markets in biomedical competitiveness. This year, Taiwan Pavilion will focus on Taiwan’s strengths in both precision medicine and personalized digital healthcare. We will host activities to invite potential international clients for idea exchange and future collaboration as well as media attention to promote Taiwan’s accomplishment and effort in the biomedical industry. The attending private sector will include biotech companies in the new drug development, CROs, CMOs, agricultural biotechnology, precision medicine, and smart healthcare. The Global Research & Industry Alliance (GLORIA), a joint government-industry-academia initiative to facilitate technology development, will be participating in the exhibition for the second consecutive year. Furthermore, 12 universities will join the pavilion, a 3-fold increase from last year, demonstrates Taiwan’s ambition to team up with international academia and confidence to showcase their research capabilities.
In addition, Deputy Minister Shieh Dar-Bin of the Ministry of Science and Technology will be promoting Taiwan’s excellent clinical trial ecosystem at the Global Innovation Hub event on June 5th with a speech entitled “Hub for Advanced Therapy in Asia Pacific-Ecosystem and Clinical Trials”. Shieh will demonstrate Taiwan’s ambitions in becoming a Center for Excellence in Clinical Trials in the Asia-Pacific region, which aims to attract foreign entities to Taiwan for cooperation and exchange.
One day prior to the opening of BIO, Development Center for Biotechnology (MOEA) will host a unique event: the Global Biotech Entrepreneur Forum 2019, in Temple University that will feature over 20 companies from Taiwan, U.S and Italy. This gathering is expected to serve as a platform for companies to showcase their innovations and foster joint effort to create new dynamic in biomedical industry.
This trip also arranges the delegates to visit internationally-renowned innovation accelerator Pennovation Center, AstraZeneca and a CRO firm, QPS. In addition, as Taiwan becomes the second country after Japan to pass specific laws to govern the rules and regulations of regenerative medicine industry, visits have also been arranged to Celgene and WuXi AppTec, companies with expertise in cell therapy. Our aim is to improve our environment to attract international partnership in regenerative medicine and establish Taiwan as the center for cell therapy in Asia.