The biomedical industry is highly anticipated to drive Taiwan's next generation of economic growth. To lay the groundwork, the Executive Yuan enacted the Act for the Development of Biotech and New Pharmaceuticals Industry in 2007. In 2017, it announced that biomedicine would be incorporated into the 5+2 Industry Innovation Plan. This year, precision health was listed as one of the Six Core Strategic Industries, receiving government-backed R&D investments numbering in the tens of billions of NT Dollars. The government’s strategy to actively support and strengthen Taiwan’s biomedical industry has resulted in a revenue of over NT$559.7 billion for the industry in 2019 alone. In light of economic breakthroughs and health challenges in the post-pandemic era, the Executive Yuan has tasked the Office of Science and Technology Commission, the Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW), the Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) to collaborate in steering medical, academic, and industrial sectors towards ground-breaking innovative biomedical R&D and manufacturing. The utilization of Taiwan’s excellent biomedical R&D, clinical trials system, and niche products will allow the country to become a major hub for the biomedical R&D industry in the Asia-Pacific region.
Here's the full interview with Chen Hong-chen, Director General of the Department of Life Sciences, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and Liu Tsu-hwie, Director of the Biotechnology, Health, Medicine and Agriculture Division, Board of Science and Technology (BOST), Executive Yuan.
