As Covid-19 spread across the world in 2020, Taiwan gained worldwide attention for its quick control of the virus and donations of face masks and equipment to help others fight it. What is perhaps less known is that Taiwan has long had one of Asia’s most advanced and efficient healthcare systems, which supports a vibrant ecosystem of medtech companies and products.
A rapidly growing number of Taiwanese medtech companies are emerging, teaming up with doctors and hospitals to develop new ways of helping people to live longer and healthier lives. Between 2010 to 2019, the number of companies in Taiwan’s biomedical industry rose from 1,355 to 2,143, with a combined export value rising from US$2.6 billion reaching US$6 billion within the same period.
One reason for this success is Taiwan’s existing strengths in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, being the leading producer of semiconductors globally. It also has a trove of digitalised patient data that has been collected since the 1990s under a national health insurance programme, which is fertile for innovations involving artificial intelligence (AI).
According to Alex Barton, managing director at Intralink, a business development consultancy specialising in East Asia, while Taiwan is a relatively small player in medical products compared with the United States, Japan and Europe, it is still a source of innovation. “Not just in this field, but in many fields, Taiwan really punches above its weight,” Barton says.
“Taiwan’s excellent healthcare infrastructure, combined with many government-supported digitalisation initiatives, local engineering expertise and a strong local ICT component supply chain has spurred the development of many innovative medical solutions.”
Inspired to innovate
Taiwan’s innovators are helping make healthcare more patient-centric – at times inspired by their personal experiences.
For example, Winnoz Technology CEO and founder Joses Hsiung wanted to help his mother, who experienced pain and discomfort when she had regular blood tests. Hsiung describes, as a boy, watching nurses struggle time and time again to get blood from his mother’s veins, which inspired him to create a solution to make people feel “relaxed and comfortable” when having their blood taken.
After years of research and development, Hsiung created Haiim, a small, portable blood collection device. Rather than drawing blood from a vein in a patient’s arm, blood is collected from the index, middle or ring finger of either hand. First, a finger is sterilised and lanced by a medical professional, then placed on a disposable component of the Haiim device. After pressing start, Haiim uses gentle vacuum suction to collect 150-500 microlitres of blood, enough to be used for various blood tests and detecting certain infectious diseases.
To date, Haiim has been sold in 26 countries, including in the UK, Europe, Middle East and South East Asia where it is being used in point-of-care testing to collect blood samples. Hsiung says as more people have vaccines to protect against Covid-19, there will be a great need to monitor their immunity levels – and this is where blood collection and testing services come in. “I think it’s going to be a big part of the application of Haiim in the coming five years,” he says.
Personal experience also motivated Chen, Chung-Chu to start his own medical device company, Somnics Inc. Chen suffers from obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which a person stops breathing for brief moments during sleep, often preventing them from sleeping soundly through the night. For years, Chen struggled with daytime fatigue until he designed the iNAP One Sleep Therapy System. This small device helps to keep a sufferer’s airway open as they sleep, allowing for better quality sleep. Unlike some other treatments, iNAP does not require a person to wear a mask when sleeping, making it more discrete, portable and patient-centric.
Chen developed a prototype for the iNAP back in 2006 when he worked at the Medical Electronics and Device Technology Centre of Taiwan’s Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI). “In such an innovation-driven environment, I got the chance to develop a whole new therapy theory using negative air pressure … a quiet and portable solution without a mask based on a suction mechanism,” he says. “The prototype we built at ITRI seemed to work well for me, so I thought perhaps it would work for others as well.” iNAP is available by prescription in countries in Europe, Asia, as well as Australia.
Tackling global healthcare challenges
In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Taiwanese company iXensor has developed a solution that transforms a smartphone into a device capable of rapidly testing for Covid-19. Using the colour sensing capabilities of smartphone cameras and proprietary PixoTech software, the PixoTest POCT Covid-19 analyser and test kit can detect positive cases within 15 minutes, making it among the fastest and most accurate tests available.
The PixoTest solution is fully digitised, connecting the test results and vaccination status of an individual with the issuance of a digital health pass and access control, where the relevant authorities enable it. The concept is that trained professionals will use the PixoTest and test recipients will get their digital test result seamlessly along with a “result QR code” via the PixoHealth Pass App. This could allow individuals with a negative test result and the app access to workplaces, events, schools and more.
“The complete solution fulfils the need for efficient mass Covid-19 screening and safety management, requiring only two QR-code scans throughout the user journey,” says Dr Carson Chen, the CEO and co-founder of iXensor. “iXensor hopes to empower various settings with a smart reopening solution and contribute to post-pandemic normalcy.”
Taiwanese companies are also active in the cutting-edge field of regenerative medicine, which helps the body to heal by regrowing or repairing damaged bones and tissue. One company innovating in this field is Aeon Biotherapeutics Corp., whose treatments, called Acti-PRP and A-BMC, are already being used in orthopaedic surgery. They work by drawing blood or bone marrow from a patient and creating a concentrated liquid of the key elements through centrifugation. This is then injected into the treatment area to aid healing. “We designed the product in such a way that no additional drug, no artefact is added … only your own blood,” says Aeon’s general manager and co-founder George Chen.
Aeon Biotherapeutics uses bone marrow concentrate and platelet-rich plasma to help the body heal itself.
Aeon is also looking ahead, researching ways to tackle deteriorating vocal cords and other problems of ageing that societies increasingly face. “Rather than people spending their last years lying in bed, not able to move around, we want them to have the last five to 10 years travelling the world, singing karaoke with their friends and enjoying life,” says Chen.
Aeon, iXensor, Somnics and Winnoz have each received a Taiwan Excellence Award, which is given out each year by the Bureau of Foreign Trade, Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) to recognise and celebrate Taiwan’s most innovative and high-quality products. With its visionary entrepreneurs, rapidly growing medtech sector and firmly established expertise in ICT, Taiwan is well-placed to continue being a source of innovation and high-quality medical products.
