All-online BIO Asia-Taiwan 2021 successfully concludes

TAIPEI, Aug. 26, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The 2021 holding of Asia's premier biotechnology gathering, BIO Asia–Taiwan, has concluded, with this year's all-online activities including an international conference, exhibition, partnering meetings using BIO's One-on-one Partnering™ platform, company presentations, and more. By all accounts of participants, exhibitors and speakers, the event was a resounding success.

With the conference theme of 'A Brave New Era for Biotechnology' organizers assembled a stellar lineup of more than 100 international speakers including MIT's Robert Langer; known as the 'Edison of Medicine'; 2020 Nobel Laureate Michael Houghton; Graham Lewis of IQVIA; and PwC's Claire Love. Speaking in the session 'Combatting the Pandemic' were such notable authorities as Chunhuei Chi, director of the Center for Global Health at Oregon State University; Asher Yeshaihu Salmon, of the Israeli Ministry of Health; and Dr. Li Bingying of National Taiwan University.

Other cutting edge session topics included breakthrough technologies, the latest medical innovations, digital health, gene and cell therapies, and bio-industry cooperation and investment. This year the conference program attracted 1,450 online attendees with 11,500+ conference views. 

Using a highly-engaging interactive platform, the online exhibition hosted 300 exhibitors from Taiwan and around the world, and attracted an impressive 47,054 visits over the course of its showing, this year extended an extra four days, opening on July 19 and closing on July 28.

Additionally, 400 companies took advantage of BIO's One-on-one Partnering™ platform to request a record 4,000 partnering meetings.

Opening the conference via a greeting address was Ching-Te Lai, Vice President of Taiwan followed by President and CEO of the global Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), Michelle McMurry-Heath. For the third year running, BIO was co-organizer of the event along with the Taiwan Bio Industry Organization (Taiwan BIO).

"The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the world what biotech and modern science can achieve. In the last year our industry has developed 17 vaccine candidates in late-stage clinical trials. And since January 2020 we have launched nearly 1,000 covid vaccine, therapeutic and diagnostic programs," she said. 

With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the annual gathering for the second year in a row, organizers found a silver lining in the ability of such an online event to boost international participation. "With the 'all-online' format, the gathering enables the biomedical community from around the world to network without boundaries," said Johnsee Lee, Chairman of the Organizing Committee in opening remarks.