Event Information

Time: November 22, 2016 (Tuesday)

Place: TRPMA Conference Room

TRPMA invited Dr Brian Chen, Vice General Manager of Daiwa Corporate Investment, to give a talk on the directions and collaborations between the biopharmaceutical industries in Taiwan and Japan. This talk is a prelude to the “Taiwan-Japan Pharmaceutical Regulatory Conference” which is to be held in Tokyo in December.

Based on his long-term experiences and observation, Dr Chen analysed the features of the biopharmaceutical industries in Taiwan and Japan, the government’s policies, the product types and treatment categories for authorization, the industry indexes and market values. He also presented the latest major developments of the technology innovation in Japan, including immunotherapy for cancer treatments, cell therapy/ regenerative medicine, medical robots, gene therapy/nucleic acid drugs, and cross disciplinary integration (e.g. iPS + robot). Dr Chen mentioned that the Japanese government not helped four universities establish venture capitals, but also shaped the regulatory environment to accommodate new technology advances, such as the formulation of the law for regenerative medicine.

The collaboration between the biotech industries in Taiwan and Japan used to be the joint development of products or technologies owned by Japanese companies. Since 2013, there have been various cooperation models. There are cases in which Taiwanese companies provided technologies and products for Japanese companies to apply for IND and conduct clinical trials. There are also cases in which Japanese companies and Taiwanese companies jointly developed new product through authorization.

Finally, Dr Chen introduced the “Daiwa Biotech Venture Capital Fund”, which gathers funds from the public and private sectors in Taiwan and Japan to invest in biotech companies’ early-stage or middle-term R&D projects. The Fund has already invested in 5 Taiwanese new drug companies and 2 Japanese companies. It aims to pool the two countries’ new drug R&D capacities and to encourage bilateral collaboration.

Dr Chen suggested drug companies to take part in the conference of “Making Science-based innovations and Entrepreneurship” in Japan on the 7th of December. The event will give an insight of the innovative biopharmaceutical industry in Japan. More information is available from “http://entrepreneurshipko.wixsite.com/seminar2”.