The larger size of BIO Asia 2019, compared to last year, highlighted the increasing importance that global pharma and MedDev are placing on Asian markets.
The conference included presentations from more than 80 industry experts including those from Silicon Valley Bank, Amazon, NVIDIA, MSD, Amgen, AI Labs TW and The Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan. Throughout the sessions, on topics such as precision medicine, cell and gene therapy, the focus was on how local companies can attract foreign investment. For example, an Executive Director from MSD, showed their recent BD and licensing deals, giving the Asian audience a flavor as to the focus of their activities. In another presentation the SVP and Global Head, Biotech, Bayer explained how small protein developers could attract attention from big pharma as BD or M&A targets.
Equally, the conference provided the platform for global companies to interact with the innovative research coming out of Taiwan. The BIO “one-on-one partnering” sessions facilitated more than 2,000 meetings. This was four times the number conducted at BIO Taiwan 2018, demonstrating the innovation and opportunities that exist within local Asian markets. Further highlighting the increasing importance of Asian markets to the product development cycle, many of the 1,700 exhibition booths were foreign CROs and clinical trial organisations.
Attending events such as BIO Taiwan, enables us to understand the dynamics, which are shaping the healthcare industry in Asia today, and those that are likely to impact the future.