Following the prestigious Tang Prize ceremony, Taiwan's biotech industry is gaining further international recognition in October. The largest biomedical research facility at the Scripps Research Institute in the U.S. will be named after Chi-Huey Wong, the President of the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry, with a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for the 23rd. Additionally, Aprinoia Therapeutics, which focuses on developing new drugs and diagnostics for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, will soon be listed on the Nasdaq. Meanwhile, OBI Pharma and AltruBio have been nominated for international biotech awards, and TCI received the "Circular Transformation Award" from Reuters’ Sustainability Awards.
The Chi-Huey Wong Laboratories for Biomedical Research, part of the Scripps Research Institute, spans 83,000 square feet, making it the largest research building at the institute. Named in honor of Wong’s contributions to glycoscience, the building was funded by the U.S. federal government and Samuel Yin of Ruentex Industries.
Chi-Huey Wong, often considered just one step away from winning the Nobel Prize, is a laureate of the prestigious Wolf Prize in Chemistry and numerous other honors. His team pioneered innovations such as the one-pot enzyme synthesis method, programmable one-pot synthesis, glycan microarrays, and broad-spectrum vaccines targeting glycans. These inventions and technologies have been licensed to companies like OBI Pharma, CHO Pharma, and Rock BioMedical.
Furthermore, following Lin BioScience’s successful public listing in the U.S. through its subsidiary Belite, another Taiwanese biotech company, Aprinoia Therapeutics, founded by Ming-Kuei Jang, is also set to go public on Nasdaq under the stock symbol "APRI."
Aprinoia’s path to its U.S. IPO has been eventful. In January of last year, it merged with Ross Acquisition Corp. II, a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) founded by U.S. investment giant Wilbur Ross. However, due to a downturn in the U.S. biotech investment market, the merger was canceled in August of the same year. Aprinoia regrouped and filed for an IPO with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this January, aiming to raise $50 million through a public offering. In February, the company announced plans to issue 2 million shares at a price range of $10 to $14 per share, targeting to raise $24 million.
In August, Aprinoia revised its plan, announcing it would issue 500,000 shares at the same price range to raise $6 million. By September, the company further adjusted the price range to $10 to $12 per share, with the same goal of raising $6 million. While the revised fundraising target is 75% lower than originally planned, if successful, Aprinoia will still become the first Taiwanese biotech company to be directly listed on Nasdaq.
Aprinoia focuses on developing diagnostic and therapeutic products for neurodegenerative diseases related to tau protein, including Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, and progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Its most advanced product, the PET imaging agent APN-1607, received Fast Track designation in May this year. APN-1607 is one of the few tau protein imaging agents currently on the market and is expected to aid in diagnosing and developing treatments for neurodegenerative diseases like PSP, frontotemporal dementia, and Alzheimer’s.
Resource (mandarin): 臺灣生技五傑 世界盃大放異彩
