The Taiwan Precision Medicine Initiative offers the opportunity to dramatically improve the nation’s medical landscape and advance the lucrative biomedical sector with an ambitious DNA mapping project. “The best doctor cures the illness that is still obscure, the good doctor cures the illness that is about to break out, and the ordinary doctor treats the…
It’s imperative to devote more resources to infectious-disease control, leading to the development of new antibiotics. In 2015, the U.S. White House launched a national action plan against antimicrobial resistance (AMR), also commonly known as antibiotic resistance. In 2017, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced the 12 types of highly resistant bacteria that pose the…
The Novartis motto – “Reimagining Medicine” – goes to the heart of the company’s deep commitment to developing innovative drugs to help fill the unmet needs of patients worldwide. The Swiss-based pharmaceutical multinational consistently ranks among the top companies investing in R&D, ensuring a constant pipeline of new and groundbreaking treatments. In 2017 the investment…
Transforming Taiwan into a regional biomedical hub will require some creativity. Taiwan’s biomedicine industry has many of the ingredients for success. The island has strong scientific talent, rich clinical-trial experience, abundant capital, a treasure trove of medical data (from the National Health Insurance system), information-technology expertise, and strong intellectual property rights protection bolstered by the…
The government’s Health Promotion Administration seeks to reduce the toll from noncommunicable diseases. Communicable diseases such as Zika, dengue fever, and Ebola may grab headlines and inspire fear, but in developed countries such as Taiwan, it is slower-moving but highly destructive noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) that are the biggest threat to both lives and the economy….
The gene-editing technology with the unlikely name offers great potential for genetic engineering. While not yet a household word, CRISPR, the new gene-editing technology, has taken the science of genetic engineering by storm. More precise than competing technologies while involving a fraction of the time and effort, CRISPR is already having a strong impact…
The recent water park tragedy brought to light some of the strengths and weaknesses of Taiwan’s emergency medical system. In what New Taipei City Mayor Eric Chu described as the “worst incident of mass injury [ever] in New Taipei,” a dust explosion at the Formosa Fun Coast water park on June 27 flooded emergency rooms…
