Shares in OBI Pharma Inc (台灣浩鼎) and PharmaEngine Inc (智擎) rallied yesterday as the biotechnology firms announced encouraging progress in their new drug development pipelines over the weekend.
OBI Pharma on Sunday announced that the US Food and Drug Administration has granted orphan drug designation for OBI-3424, the company’s hepatocellular carcinomas (HCC) drug.
The stock yesterday gained 5.7 percent to close at NT$157.5 in Taipei trading.
The designation, which is granted for rare diseases with fewer than 200,000 patients in the US, brings benefits upon marketing approval, including market exclusivity, reduced or waived regulatory fees and protocol assistance during the approval process.
The drug is designed to selectively release a potent DNA alkylating agent in patients with an overexpression of the AKR1C3 enzyme, whereas other traditional alkylating agents, such as cyclophosphamide and ifosfamide, are non-selective, the company said.
AKR1C3 is also a marker found in other treatment-resistant and difficult to treat cancers, such as castrate-resistant prostate cancer and T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it said.
The company has outlined plans to streamline the drug’s clinical development process by targeting patients with AKR1C3 overexpression.
PharmaEngine Inc (智擎) on Sunday announced that it would receive US$3 million in milestone payments as Onivyde, its new pancreatic drug, commences sales in its third EU market.
The windfall is expected to boost the company’s earnings per share by NT$0.61, it said.
The company last month reported that a global pivotal trial for PEP503, a soft tissue sarcoma drug it is developing with France’s Nanobiotix SA, has met its primary and secondary endpoints, which would aid the approval process ahead.
PEP503 is activated with radiotherapy via Nanobiotix’s NanoXray, a class III medical device, and is designed to promote patients’ immune system response against tumors, the company said.
Other indications being explored include head and neck cancer, as well as liver, colorectal and prostate cancer, the company added.
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
RECORD-BREAKING: TSMC’s net profit last quarter beat market expectations by expanding 8.9% and it was the best first-quarter profit in the chipmaker’s history Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), which counts Nvidia Corp as a key customer, yesterday said that artificial intelligence (AI) server chip revenue is set to more than double this year from last year amid rising demand. The chipmaker expects the growth momentum to continue in the next five years with an annual compound growth rate of 50 percent, TSMC chief executive officer C.C. Wei (魏哲家) told investors yesterday. By 2028, AI chips’ contribution to revenue would climb to about 20 percent from a percentage in the low teens, Wei said. “Almost all the AI innovators are working with TSMC to address the
FUTURE PLANS: Although the electric vehicle market is getting more competitive, Hon Hai would stick to its goal of seizing a 5 percent share globally, Young Liu said Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), a major iPhone assembler and supplier of artificial intelligence (AI) servers powered by Nvidia Corp’s chips, yesterday said it has introduced a rotating chief executive structure as part of the company’s efforts to cultivate future leaders and to enhance corporate governance. The 50-year-old contract electronics maker reported sizable revenue of NT$6.16 trillion (US$189.67 billion) last year. Hon Hai, also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), has been under the control of one man almost since its inception. A rotating CEO system is a rarity among Taiwanese businesses. Hon Hai has given leaders of the company’s six