Pharmaceutical News
Chen Chien-Jen: Biotech industry will be a crucial industry in the future
2015/11/16

Tsai Ing-Wen, DPP’s presidential candidate, announced today that Dr Chen Chien-Jen, Vice President of Academia Sinica, is to be her election partner.  In the press conference, Dr Chen was asked whether there is a way for the biotech industry in Taiwan to weather the storm of “Yu-Chang case”, a smear campaign against Tsai Ing-Wen.

 

Dr Chen replied that he strongly believes that there are great opportunities for the biotech industry in Taiwan as there are sufficient investment, good selection of research topics, a good healthcare system, the NHI, and our expertise in the diseases in Asia.  He is confident that the biotech industry will become an important industry in Taiwan.

【2015-11-16/ Liberty Times】

 

 

Dr Chen Chien-Jen is optimistic about the potential of the biotech industry in Taiwan.   However, he pointed out the obstacles to its success.  Dr Chen said that the biggest problem is that Taiwan is a small country with a population of just 23 million.  The scale is too small to support a big pharmaceutical company. Hence, it is important to tighten up the cross-strait cooperation, said Dr Chen.

 

As the DPP’s candidate for Vice President, Dr Chen’s views on cross-strait relationship come under scrutiny.  He said in an interview last week that the people living in western countries and Asia are susceptible to different types of diseases.  For example, adenocarcinoma among non-smokers and early-onset breast cancer are more popular in Asia than in western countries.  The differences have puzzled researchers in the world.  If we can focus our efforts in the diseases popular among the people in Asia, then we can develop a niche in the market.

 

Dr Chen pointed out that though the Cross-strait Cooperation Agreement on Medicine and Public Health has already been signed, its implement is far from complete.  Taiwan has advanced medical researches and a good NHI system with which patients can be monitored easily.  Yet, it is not so in China where the medical standards vary widely.  Therefore, we could start with the mutual recognition between four medical centers in Taiwan and four medical centers in China, and expand the implementation scale to 20 medical centers in the future. 

 

Dr Chen stressed that moving towards this direction will give both countries a great opportunity to develop new drugs, new vaccines and new reagents for the diseases common in East Asia whose market is big enough to support clinical trials and to generate substantial profits.

【2015-11-16/ United Daily News】