The Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA), Taiwan announced that it had approved a grant to local drug development company Medigen Biotechnology to help cover the costs of further clinical trials on its latest anti-cancer drug.

The grant awarded to Medigen Biotechnology is for the company's 'International Joint Development Program,' a programme to develop and trial its new anti-cancer drug PI-88. The programme has been running for four years already.

MOEA expressed that the Medigen anti-cancer drug is one of very few drugs that has approved by both Taiwan's Department of Health (DOH) and the USFDA to enter phase II clinical trials. This drug gained approval for trials in Taiwan for phase II clinical trials for liver and kidney cancer.

The committee's report noted that any success arising from Medigen's program will help raise Taiwan's international standing in new drug development, and will also help further establish Taiwan as a centre of clinical trials in Asia, according to the MOEA.

The grant to Medigen was one of four that the committee of the MOEA's Technology Development Program awarded to local technology companies, totaling NT$60 million, with the funds covering a significant portion of the four companies' total R&D requirements of around NT$234 million.

- (Biotech East staff)