The Executive Yuan held its three-day Bio Taiwan Committee (BTC) meeting, gathering more than 300 representatives from the private and public sectors as well as academia to explore future trends, cross-disciplinary innovation, regulatory developments, investment capital, and connecting Taiwan to global markets. Minister without Portfolio Wu Tsung-tsong presided over the opening ceremony.
Regarding cross-disciplinary innovation, Minister Wu said that this year’s meeting focused on rapidly growing digital technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and 5G, which when combined, would bring tremendous advancement to the biotechnology industry as well as blur the lines dividing pharmaceuticals, medical devices and the health and welfare industries. In the next decade, synergy of talent and technology will bring about tremendous innovations.
On collaborations between AI and biotechnology, Minister Wu said that there are 31 hospitals in Taiwan with biobanks, which contain data that can be inputted into IoT networks and become the main growth engine for Taiwan’s biotechnology industries in the next five to 10 years. An example would be Academia Sinica’s biobank of 200,000 individuals, which once required tremendously high costs to utilize, however, following many years of hard work, costs have been reduced to just one-twentieth, Minister Wu said, urging the public to utilize the biobanks.
Minister Wu said that Taiwan has the best national health insurance system and is number one in medical capabilities in Asia. Following a de-identification process, access of patient data can be granted to teams formed between academia and industries to develop applications. A recent milestone is that among Taiwan’s hospital-managed biobanks, around a dozen have established data interconnection, representing an important first step. Following the BTC summit meeting, the government will formulate policies based on suggestions given by participants from the public and private sectors as well as academia.
【2019-09-04 / Commercial Times】
