(Taiwan) Green medicine: Innovative botanical technologies presented in Taiwan :: BiotechEast - Taiwan and China biotechnology, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, ^¤å½s×, ^¤å×§ï ::

(By Ben Ferris)

22 April, 2006
Taiwan's Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center (PITDC) held a press event in Taipei today to announce progress on a portfolio of botanically-derived new drug candidates under development at the center's research facilities.

T.S. Jiang, president of Phytohealth Corp. (left), and Chen Gan-lin, president of the Medical and Pharmaceutical Industry Technology and Development Center (PITDC) present their organizations' new drug candidates, the results of their botanically-derived drug discovery research programs, at a forum in Taipei on Wednesday, 26 April 2006.

The portfolio comprises mostly of pharmaceutical drugs derived from Chinese botanical medicine. Of particular focus, the successful development of anti-cough drug candidate PDC-748 (having completed Phase I-II clinical trials) was held up as a model example of the joint research undertaken by a newly-formed drug research association, the group being composed of the PITDC and herbal medicine companies PhytoHealth Corp. and SunTen Phytotech Corp.

PhytoHealth's President T.S. Jiang emphasized that the research alliance model that successfully developed the promising drug candidate PDC-748 was a strategy that could benefit other local companies looking to share competitive strengths.

"Developing the technology cooperatively helped lower costs, accelerated development and improved quality of results by having participating companies contribute to the project with their core competencies. In the case of PDC-748, each participating company was able to bring their competitive strengths to bear on the project with positive results," Jiang said.

The cough medicine market is seen as being particularly lucrative in light of Western medicine's inability to effectively combat this chronic condition, with estimates placing the market value of this sector at over US$15 billion.

In addition, PITDC's Director for Science Research Division Ko Feng-nien discussed the "exciting" development of several other botanical drugs, focusing particularly on a platform of botanicals that were seen to be particularly effective treating chronic conditions such as gastric ulcer, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder as well as depression.

The PITDC also presented their comprehensive herbal medicine materials database, the result of two and a half years work in collecting and documenting over 300 botanical specimens island-wide. The aim of the project was to elevate the quality of herbal medicine in Taiwan by establishing herbal medicine assays and encouraging higher standards of research and development in the industry.

"Not only is this the best and most comprehensive library of Chinese herbal medicine specimens in the world, it's the only one of its kind," PITDC's president Chen Gan-lin pointed out.

Phytohealth Corp., is a subsidiary of listed healthcare goup Maywufa Bipharmaceutical Enterprise, focuses on the manufacture and sale of western medicine, cosmetic products and vitamins.

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