Taiwan Building Up Biomed Capacity to Help Fight COVID-19 Pandemic


Apr.13, 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused serious impact in people’s daily lives around the world, mankind and all nations are in the fight together. As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan is not only helping but also committed to the fight and seeing it through. All of Taiwan’s biomedical research outcome will be deployed to help end the pandemic.


Taiwanese businesses are contributing to the fight against COVID-19 in a variety of areas. For example, ICT industry giants such as Quanta and Foxconn are remodeling their productions lines to make virus detection kits and ventilators; Formosa Plastic Corporation is engaged in the production of PP and Spandex, the raw materials of isolation gowns and medical masks; companies such as TCI are focusing on producing virus scanners that could test 96 patients at a time. Also, Taiwan-based Sci Pharmtech, the world’s second largest quinine manufacturer, has announced it will synthesize 15 million tablets of quinine within the next 3 months.


Operating one of the world’s best medical care and public health systems as well as one of the most complete epidemic prevention ecosystems, the Taiwan government is fully committed to work with the global biomedical community. Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) has made significant progress on synthesizing Remdesivir, a possible post-infection treatment for COVID-19 illness, and several countries have approached the institute for collaboration.


According to Chiung-Tong Chen, the Director of the Institute of Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Research (IBPR) at NHRI, the R&D of anti COVID-19 coronavirus medication would include using existing drugs such as quinine, research findings from the SARS outbreak, big data and AI to discover possible compounds or substances.


Moreover, Taiwan’s national academy, Academia Sinica, has made a breakthrough on the production of a 15-minute rapid screening kit. The academy’s researchers have also identified potential COVID-19 protease inhibitors, which may interrupt the infectious cycle of the coronavirus and block its replication.


Furthermore, though still under clinical trial, Taiwan’s Ministry of Science and Technology recently revealed a 12-minute COVID-19 test kit. The kit is a joint effort of Taiwan and Denmark that aims to obtain EU certification in May and launch in Taiwan in June.


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***As of today, April 13, the COVID-19 outbreak has resulted in more than 1,797,000 confirmed cases worldwide. As of writing, a total of 393 confirmed cases were reported in Taiwan, with 338 imported cases, 6 deceased cases, 114 cases released from isolation, and the remainder hospitalized in stable condition. See the latest update: https://www.cdc.gov.tw/En