2024/7/24 In the face of stormy weather, BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 opens

International experts gather in Taipei to discuss the hottest topics in biotech, including cell and gene therapy, precision medicine, digital healthcare, and venture capital and investment

24 July, 2024

BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 commenced today as scheduled at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center (TaiNEX 2), undeterred by the approaching typhoon. The morning Plenary Session entitled Global Biotech Development kicked off with opening remarks by Johnsee Lee, Chairman of BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024; Chung-Hsiun Wu, Chairman of the Taiwan Bio Industry Organization (Taiwan BIO); and Hilary Stiss, Director of International Affairs at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), and Executive Director of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA). Notable speakers in this session included André Andonian, Chair of Asia Pacific and Strategic Advisor of Flagship Pioneering; Sabrina Yang, Principal at Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder of Empress Tx; and Feng Zhang, Tang Prize Laureate and MIT professor. Together this esteemed group shared insights on the latest global biotechnology advancements, emerging industry trends and future opportunities.

Johnsee Lee, in opening the occasion, noted that despite breakthroughs in many emerging technologies, the last 12 months had been turbulent—particularly financial markets—but that at this year's gathering many activities had been planned to find ways to overcome such obstacles. Specifically, this year’s conference had expanded into three parallel tracks; the Innovation Forum, the Investment Summit, and the Regional Cooperation Forums. And as well as the international exhibition, there’s also one-on-one business matchmaking, company presentations, and satellite forums. This year’s event promises to be exciting, he added, expressed special thanks to everyone for braving the weather and for contributing to the future health of Taiwan's biotech industry.

Chung-Hsiun Wu, Chairman of Taiwan BIO, explained that this year's conference theme is ‘Global View, Asian Touch’, which reflects Taiwan's commitment to expanding its biotech industry globally. Introducing his organization, Wu said that Taiwan BIO was founded 35 years ago and has 150 organizational members, with its primary goals being to expand global cooperation, serve as a bridge between industry, government, and academia, and explore business opportunities for its members.

This year, Taiwan BIO Secretary-General Wallace Lin was elected Vice Chairman of the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA), marking the first time a Taiwanese or even any Asian has held this position. With Taiwan's significant and growing role in the global biomedical supply chains, Wu pledged that the association will continue to promote the development of Taiwan's biotech industry to ensure its sustainable growth.

Hilary Stiss expressed her appreciation for the friendliness of the Taiwanese people, and had recognized the immense potential in Taiwan's capabilities and in partnerships during her annual participation in the BIO Asia–Taiwan gathering.

Stiss also represents the International Council of Biotechnology Associations (ICBA), the world's most important biotech association organization. She mentioned that during the COVID-19 pandemic, ICBA collaborated with member countries on drug development progress. Other goals of ICBA include disease prevention, agricultural sustainability, and environmental protection. ICBA also represents the biotechnology industry in international organizations, convening national associations from around the world each year to discuss policies and international matters. She hoped that through continued international exchanges, the global biotechnology industry would continue to thrive in the future.

 

Exploring opportunities in the Asia-Pacific: Venture capital, digital technology, precision medicine, and cell and gene therapy experts gather

In his presentation André Andonian of Flagship Pioneering said that Asia had become a crucial player globally, with approximately 60 percent of GDP coming from manufacturing and around 60 percent of global patents originating from Asia. In particular, the Asia-Pacific region had become a hub of innovation. For these reasons Flagship Pioneering began expanding into the Asia-Pacific market starting 2023, establishing offices in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, with plans to extend to other countries. In addition to investing independently, Flagship aims to establish additional partnerships to accelerate the development of biotechnology, bioengineering, and medicine.

Sabrina Yang, Principal at Flagship Pioneering and Co-Founder of Empress Tx, shared insights on how Flagship Pioneering creates growth-oriented companies through its unique ‘What if’ process exploring innovative technologies. Coming from Taiwan originally, she expressed optimism around Taiwan government policies in the manufacturing and medical industries, the advantages of its National Health Insurance system, in particular its medical databases, its fundamental research, and cross-industry collaboration. She hoped to leverage Flagship Pioneering resources and Empress Tx’ innovative drug development platform to enter global markets.

This year, the conference invited Feng Zhang, recipient of the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science and professor at MIT, to share two studies conducted by his team on viral vector delivery systems; one published this year in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), and the other in Nature in 2023. Both studies hold promise for further development into innovative therapies.

Anis Uzzaman, Founder and CEO of Pegasus Tech Ventures, shared investment trends from Silicon Valley and his perspective as a Silicon Valley investor on biotechnology and medical care. He said that he was particularly optimistic about the future development of data science integrated with AI, gene editing, bio-printing combined with tissue engineering, stem cells, and brain-machine interfaces. Pegasus has invested in over 260 startups, with 29 of these companies achieving unicorn status, he said.

Paru Deshpande, Vice President of R&D, Health Technologies Division, imec, discussed how the interaction between biology and technology was driving the future of healthcare. He also showcased various digital health solutions developed by imec using wafer technology. Zubin J. Daruwalla, Health Industries Leader at PwC Singapore and Asia-Pacific, discussed emerging trends in the global health industry, opining that ‘healthcare’ as a concept will shift towards ‘health’, as innovative technologies are now capable of addressing medical issues even before diseases occur. He emphasized, "AI will not replace humans, but those who do not embrace technology will be replaced by those who do."

Brian Mi, President, Asia-Pacific, IQVIA, highlighted overall trends and opportunities in the pharmaceutical industry. He noted that post-COVID-19, large pharmaceutical companies had shifted their funding towards research and development and are currently focusing on non-communicable diseases. Regulatory agencies, due to increased flexibility, have also better facilitated drug market entry. He also said that artificial intelligence (AI) had brought transformative changes to drug development. Miguel Forte, President of the International Society for Cell and Gene Therapy (ISCT), and CEO and co-founder at Kiji Therapeutics, in his presentation explained that cell and gene therapy products had seen exponential growth over the past 15 years, but despite such opportunities there are various challenges that remained in implementing these therapies.

 

Conference program expands to three parallel tracks 

Session 3 of the first day’s program was entitled ‘Through International Alignment for a Healthier Taiwan’, and featured a number of notable speakers, including Johnsee Lee, Chairman of BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024; Hidehito Katsuma, Chairman of the Industrial Research Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association (IRPMA) and General Manager of Eli Lilly Taiwan; Lily Wong, Partner, PwC Taiwan; Eric Y. Chuang, Vice President and General Director, Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories at the Institute at the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI); Toshihiko Takeda, Senior Advisor, Boston Consulting Group; and Frances Milnes, President of Novartis Taiwan.

Session 4 focused on the current hot topic of antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) and featured presentations from Liu Li-Cheng, Chairman of EirGenix; Heidi Wang, CEO of OBI Pharma; Gur Roshwalb, Partner at aMoon, Israel’s largest pharmaceutical venture capital fund; Zhu Gui-Dong, CEO of SparX Biopharmaceuticals; and Edward Hsieh, Vice President of R&D, Formosa Laboratories.

Session 5 explored the latest applications and future developments in the field of cell and gene therapy, and featured discussions from Chien-Tsun Kuan, CEO of ARCE Therapeutics; John Tsai, Managing Partner at Syncona; Alex Shih-Min Huang, Vice President at BeiGene; Chia-Hua Maggie Ho, COO of Amerex; David Chang, CEO of the newly-formed Taiwan Bio-Manufacturing Corporation (TBMC); and Gur Roshwalb, Partner at aMoon. This esteemed lineup of experts discussed the current challenges in cell and gene therapy from multiple perspectives including funding, regulation, manufacturing, and ethics.

In summary, this year’s conference and its newly-featured three parallel forum tracks offers something for everyone and aims to assist Taiwan’s biotech community address the challenges and complexity of the industry today. BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 promises to be an exciting and influential event!