President Tsai Ing-wen met with the "2022 Taiwan BIO Awards" winners on 23rd February 2023.
In her remarks, the president emphasized that the government will continue to invest resources and adjust relevant regulations to enable the biotech and medical industries to continue to enhance their competitiveness. She also encouraged everyone to persist in innovating and conducting research and development to make Taiwan's biotech and medical industries more prosperous and benefit the people.
President Tsai welcomed the award winners and recognized the importance of the biotech and medical industries as strategic industries for Taiwan. She noted that the COVID-19 pandemic over the past three years has accelerated the development of the domestic biomedical industry and demonstrated Taiwan's strength in the international market. In 2021, the operating income of Taiwan's biotech industry broke through NT$700 billion, reaching a new high in 10 years.
The president stressed that in the future, the government would continue to invest resources in R&D and talent cultivation in the biotech and medical fields, as well as adjust and revise relevant regulations to allow people to enjoy advanced medical services and to enable the biotech and medical industries to continue to enhance their competitiveness, becoming Taiwan's next trillion-dollar industry.
President Tsai mentioned that the Ministry of Health and Welfare established the "Intelligent Medical Device Office" last year to provide rapid services for developing AI medical products and assist the medical and information and communication industries in cross-disciplinary cooperation to accelerate the layout of the international market. The legislation of the "Regenerative Medicine Act" and the "Regenerative Medicine Products Act," which many people are concerned about, will continue to be promoted by the legislative department to make the system more complete.
Finally, President Tsai thanked the Taiwan Bio Industry Organization for its long-term integration of industry and academia, which has laid a solid foundation for Taiwan's biomedical industry. She congratulated this year's award-winning companies, who have excelled in the biomedical fields and supported the epidemic prevention work, becoming important members of the national team.
The president mentioned companies such as Chunghwa Chemical Synthesis & Biotech, which actively invest in antiviral drug research; LabTurbo, which has an exclusive patent that improves the quality and quantity of nucleic acid diagnostics; and Leadgene Biomedical, which has developed antibody and protein raw materials to assist downstream manufacturers in producing rapid tests.
The president expressed gratitude for their contributions and encouraged them to continue innovating and conducting research to further develop Taiwan's biotech and medical industry, create more benefits for the people, and once again congratulated the award winners.
Source: Office of the President Republic of China (Taiwan)
