Taiwan’s pharmaceutical industry is expected to touch $1.86 billion in 2008 up from $1.84 billion in 2007. The increasingly fierce competition and declining margins of pharmaceutical brands in Taiwan are said to be the cause of this weak production value growth of local pharmaceutical industry.

 

However, outpacing the pharmaceutical market, $1.86 billion medical device sector is poised to expand steadily over the next five years. Uptake of diagnostics for chronic diseases and an aging population are driving the medical devices sector in the country.

 

The government and private sectors are making efforts in promoting the biotech sector that has brought in investments in the biopharmaceutical industry to increase from less than $300 million each year to nearly $700 million per year over the past five years. The number of biotech and biomedical companies in Taiwan exceeds well over 1,100.

 

In 2007, the government also announced that up to $900 million will be invested in building a National Biotechnology Park. Besides, it is planning to build two further communities of leading biotech enterprises to attract major biotech companies, vaccine manufacturers, pharmaceutical companies, electronic and telecommunications-based medical equipment manufacturers, and animal laboratories and manufacturers of dental and orthopedic equipment, scalpels, and micro-electromechanical systems.

 

In addition, the government has designated the biotechnology industry for further development into a key industry in its Two Trillion, Twin Stars Plan and Challenge 2008 National Development Plan. The government-plans to promote the industry include achieving targets of $4.34 billion in investments and 25 percent annual revenue growth by 2008 and 500 biotech-related companies within 10 years. Taiwan’s biotechnology sector is poised for rapid expansion after a decade of increasing investment.

 

The overall life sciences industry (biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, medical technology) in Taiwan has generated revenues of about $6.16 billion in 2007 against previous year’s revenue of $5.5 billion. The industry has experienced an average annualized growth of 12 percent since 2001.

 

Through the combined efforts of government, academia, research and industrial sectors, Taiwan is poised to become a major hub and logistics operations center for R&D, manufacturing, and operations in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries within the Asia Pacific region and to become a visible player in the global biotech industry.

 

Taiwan Top 5 by revenue

 

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