The American Chamber of Commerce in Taiwan hosted its 2024 Cancer Summit on July 15 at the Regent Taipei, attracting prominent members from the healthcare industry.
The event, titled “Blueprint for a Comprehensive Cancer Drugs Fund,” served as a thorough examination and careful forecast of President Lai Ching-te’s well-underway Taiwan multi-support Cancer Drugs Fund (TmCDF), which draws inspiration from the visionary Cancer Moonshot initiatives spearheaded by the United States and pledges to reduce Taiwan’s cancer mortality rate by a third by 2030.
Welcoming the summit’s guests was AmCham Chairperson Dan Silver, who introduced the newly assigned American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene to his first public appearance in his role. Greene gave high praise to Taiwan’s healthcare communities and further applauded President Lai’s commitment to proving that “a cancer diagnosis isn’t a death sentence.” He called on Taiwan to align reimbursement and international treatment guidelines and seek cooperation from all stakeholders to “improve lives globally.”
In his keynote remarks, Minister Without Portfolio (formerly the Minister of Health and Welfare) Chen Shih-chung set a clear tone for the event by emphasizing that “early detection and screening will be our biggest tools.” Chen highlighted that more diagnoses would lead to higher costs, but in order to “preemptively overcome future challenges,” we have to “spend now to save money in the future.” This can be achieved through a strong trilateral relationship between consumers, the medical community, and government, he said.
A second round of keynote remarks was delivered by Academia Sinica’s Academician Yang Pan-chyr. Recognizing the NHI as a “stabilizing pillar of Taiwanese society,” Yang noted that Taiwan has to utilize efforts in the public sector to alleviate heavy financial strain as “higher expenditure resources are being used for patients with less positive outcomes.”
Yang’s remarks were followed by a presentation by National Cheng Kung University Institute of Clinical Medicine’s Dean Shan Yan-shen, titled “Charting a Course for Cancer Care: Leveraging International Benchmarks to Achieve Stage Shift Policies Goals.” Shan stressed that “we need to think about medical equality.” He referenced the disparities between medical access in big cities and Taiwan’s countryside and current imbalances in which specific risk factors need attention.
Yang Chih-hsin, director and professor at the Graduate Institute of Oncology at National Taiwan University, moderated the first panel on reducing cancer mortality through enhancing early treatment and aligning with international treatment guidelines. Panelists included National Health Insurance Administration Director General Shih Chung-liang, China Medical University Hsinchu Hospital Dean Chen Tzu-liang, Tung’s Taichung Metro Harbor Hospital’s Chief of the R&D and Innovation Center Ou Yen-chuan, Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Vice Superintendent Tseng Ling-ming, and Taipei Veterans General Hospital’s Head of the Department of Chest Medicine Chen Yuh-min.
A second speech, titled “Empowering Innovation and Accessibility: Blueprint for a Comprehensive Cancer Drugs Fund,” was given by Formosa Cancer Foundation Deputy Head Jane Tsai, who stressed that “financial resources are not unlimited.”
Guiding the following panel discussions was moderator and Chang Gung Memorial University Department of Health Care Management’s Professor Lu Jui-fen. Panelists included Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Lin Ching-yi, Health and Welfare Association’s Cancer Drugs Accessibility Committee Chair and Legislator Liu Chien-kuo, National Taiwan University Institute of Health Policy and Management Professor Yang Ming-chin, and Tamkang University Department of Accounting Professor Han Hsing-wen.
MOHW Deputy Minister Lin brought the event to a close. She highlighted that the industry response to the Cancer Drugs Fund is widespread and that it “underscores the significant responsibility the MOHW bears in this matter.” To rise to this monumental occasion, the MOHW will strive to “promote the development of new cancer drugs in Taiwan, optimize the reimbursement system, and enhance early screening and treatment.”
The event was sponsored by Amgen, AstraZeneca, MSD, and Johnson & Johnson.
