Following the readout of a phase II trial evaluating its COVID-19 oral antiviral Pentarlandir (SNB-01), Taiwan’s Syneurx International Corp. said it expects to launch a phase III test of the candidate in the next few months.

Big pharma is increasingly turning to Taiwan to leverage the power of the country’s data and computing power as precision medicine takes center stage in drug development, speakers said during the recent BIO Asia-Taiwan conference in Taipei.

Keeping innovation growing at a fast clip while retaining new global supply chain capacity built up during the pandemic were the main topics of discussion at the Bio Asia-Taiwan conference July 27 in Taipei. With the theme of the conference, “Connecting the Asia Value Chain,” Taiwan Vice President Ching-Te Lai said the pandemic has demonstrated Taiwan’s resilience as well as the strength of the global biopharma industry.

Growing collaborations between pharma and technology companies in digital health are beginning to create a new ecosystem in Taiwan that it hopes will increase its value in the global supply chain, speakers said during the BIO Asia-Taiwan conference in Taipei, running July 27-31.

The National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) of Taiwan has teamed up with Taiwanese computer manufacturer Asustek Computer Inc. and American cloud computing company Nvidia Corp. to build Taiwan’s first supercomputer for medical research.

Innovent Biologics Inc. has inked a $312 million licensing deal for the development and commercialization of Genfleet Therapeutics Inc.’s KRAS G12C inhibitor, GFH-925, in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Innovent also has additional option-in rights for global development and commercialization.