The BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 Exhibition was held at the Taipei Nangang Exhibition Center Hall 1 (TaiNEX 1), from 26th to 29th July. The exhibition featured more than 900 companies exhibiting at more than 2,200 booths, of which more than 40 percent of attendees being international participants majorly from Japan, the United States, and South Korea. The forum organized exclusive “BIO One-on-One Partnering” business matching meetings, with around 70% surge in meeting scheduling activities compared to previous year. On an average this year more than 8,000 sessions were scheduled.

The theme for BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 was ‘Global View, Asian Touch,’ showcasing the breakthrough advancements in novel drugs, innovative therapies, and regenerative medicine in Asia and Taiwan reflecting on the region’s exponential industrial development. 

The conference component expanded into three major tracks – the Innovation Forum, the Investment Summit, and the Regional Cooperation Forums. 

The forum welcomed Taiwanese and international dignitaries, including Taiwan Bio Industry Organization Chairman Wu Chung-hsiun, Minister Chiu Tai-yuan, and BIO Asia-Taiwan 2024 Chairman Johnsee Lee.

Chairman of BIO Asia-Taiwan, Johnsee Lee, stated in his opening speech that the past year has been a roller coaster ride for the biotechnology industry; stable in some ways, turbulent in others. Despite the downturn in the capital markets, the momentum of biotech innovation has not ceased. He emphasized that the forum underscores the continued internationalization of BIO Asia–Taiwan with an increasing number of international delegates and exhibitors.

Furthermore, BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 initiated its alliance with the Taiwan Startup World Cup (TSWC) to hold their final round of pitching at the event venue in order to facilitate matchmaking between startups and investors.

On 28th July, the Vice President visited the Nangang Exhibition Center (TaiNEX 1) to witness the latest biotechnology innovations and equipment at the BIO Asia–Taiwan 2024 Exhibition. The Taiwan Vice President Hsiao Bi-khim commended the biotech and biomedical capabilities of Taiwan and anticipated Taiwan biotech industry's continued integration with the global landscape. She expressed hope that the exhibition will assist Taiwanese biotechnology companies and institutions in connecting with international partners more effectively and seamlessly while highlighting Taiwan's strong biomedical capabilities. 

During her visit to the exhibition, the VP explored pavilions and booths spotlighting "Contract Development and Manufacturing Services," "Precision Medicine and Genetic Testing," "International Pavilions," "Government and Academic Research," and "Industry-Academia Incubation" specialty zones, thus enabling her to witness full chain of biotechnology from R&D to finished products, as well as some of the cutting-edge equipment and technologies. She applauded Taiwan's biomedical capabilities and hoped that the exhibition would attract and encourage both domestic and international biotechnology companies to engage in networking, cooperation and collaborations.

John Crowley, President of the US-headquartered Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), extended best wishes. Crowley highlighted that BIO has nearly 1,000 members worldwide, making it the world's largest biotechnology advocacy organization. During this year's BIO Convention in San Diego in June, he was particularly impressed by the Taiwan Pavilion's display of Taiwanese innovations. Specifically, he underscored that BIO, association as a co-host of BIO Asia-Taiwan, has embodied a significant role in Asia's biotech revolution.

Furthermore, Crowley also mentioned that his two children suffer from Pompe disease, and took the opportunity to express his gratitude to Taiwan's Academia Sinica Academician Chen Yuan-Tsong for developing Myozyme to treat Pompe disease. He credited Taiwan's biomedical innovation for both saving his children's lives and demonstrating its strength.

2024 Taiwan BIO Awards:  Showcasing Strength in Pharmaceuticals, Medical Technology, and Applied Biotechnology

Taiwan BIO Awards winners for 2024 were recognized at the opening ceremony. Johnsee Lee, Taiwan BIO Chairman Chung-Hsiun Wu, Deputy Director of the Industrial Development Bureau of the Ministry of Economic Affairs Peili Chen, the convener of the Awards Committee/Academician of Taipei Medical University Wen-Chang Chang, and the Executive Deputy Chairman of the National Science and Technology Council Chen-Kang Su awarded medals to 19 winning companies.

The Vice President Hsiao Mei-chin presented awards to the winners of this year's Taiwan BIO Awards. Some of the notable awards were, "Outstanding Company of the Year," "Emerging Company of the Year," "Startup of the Year," and "Innovation of the Year." 

Current Trends in Global Biotech: AI Drug Development, Precision Medicine, Digital Health

The third day of BIO Asia-Taiwan 2024, 29th July, three sessions of the Innovation Forum addressed key global trends in the biomedical field: artificial intelligence (AI) in pharmaceuticals, genomics and precision medicine, and digital health. Industry and academic experts from around the world shared their insights at the conference.

The first Session focused on the application of AI in the pharmaceutical field. Hosted by Ching-Yung Lin, founder of Graphen Drugnomics, several domestic and international companies who use AI to develop drugs or provide AI services shared their experiences. Ching-Yung Lin mentioned that While AI has gained immense popularity in the past five years, there is still much anticipation about whether AI will revolutionize the pharmaceutical industry over the next two to three decades.

Tom Diethe, Executive Director, Head of the Centre for Artificial Intelligence at AstraZeneca, based in Cambridge, UK, discussed how AI tools are being utilized to assist with drug development at AstraZeneca. Martin Akerman, Co-Founder and CTO of the American AI drug discovery company Envisagenics, introduced their technology that uses AI to identify RNA splicing errors in tumor cells to develop innovative therapeutic targets.

Founder and CEO of AI/ffinity, Thomas Evangelidis, described how his company uses protein NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) data with AI to develop drug candidates. Shu-Chen Chen, Chief Scientific Officer of AnHorn Medicines, discussed how AnHorn uses artificial intelligence to accelerate the discovery of innovative protein degradation drugs. NaHyun Kim, Solution Sales Specialist at Medidata, explained how Medidata's AI division uses AI and machine learning (AI/ML) technologies in clinical trials.

The next Session entitled ‘Advances in Genetics and Precision Medicine in Human Diseases’, and was chaired by Kang-Yuan Lee, Vice President of Taipei Medical University.

Toyomasa Katagiri, Director of Japan's National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition, spoke about his team's breakthrough in developing a new method of treating breast cancer. John Jiang, Senior Director of Medical & Scientific Affairs at Illumina, discussed the use of genomic analysis in personalized cancer treatment. A professor at Imperial College London, Kazuhiro Ito, shared developments in precision respiratory medicine.

Teh-Ying Chou, Vice Superintendent, Research and Development, Taipei Medical University Hospital, moderated the post-discussion session. A partner at DDT Attorneys-at-Law, Sungmei Hsiung, reminded technology developers to use patent tools to protect their research.

The subsequent luncheon session entitled ‘Shaping the Future of Digital Health,’ began with presentations by Chien-Cheng Tai, Senior Technical Specialist at the Department of Industrial Technology of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and Eric Y. Chuang, Director of ITRI's Biomedical Technology and Device Research Laboratories (BDL).

Nipun Jain, Director of AstraZeneca's Innovation and Partnerships, International Region, announced AstraZeneca's “A.Catalyst Network”, which promotes innovative therapies in Asia, East Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The Head of Sales, Google Cloud Taiwan, Tony Lee discussed various applications of Google AI in healthcare.

Subsequently the conclusive panel session was moderated by Chuang, together with Jing-Wei Lee, Superintendent of National Cheng Kung University Hospital; Kai-Cheng Hsu, Chief Medical Officer, Biomedical Big Data & Artificial Intelligence Technology, BDL, ITRI; and Peter Kurz, Chief Strategy Officer, QIC, they discussed ways to promote precision medicine through public-private partnerships and policies.