By Jessica Yang, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Taiwan is establishing its presence in the life science industry and becoming an important player on the global stage. As Taiwan moves ahead to build its life science innovative ecosystem, Life Science Nation has partnered with Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) to organize an inaugural RESI Conference in Taipei, Taiwan on November 14^th. RESI Taipei will be a great chance to get plugged into the Taiwan’s rising life science ecosystem and meet emerging startups, both local and drawn from RESI’s global network.

Last month, the Taipei City Government, BTBA (Boston Taiwanese Biotechnology Association), and ITRI (Industrial Technology Research Institute) co-organized the “Taipei Bio Forum” event in Boston. As a media partner, LSN also promoted this event to invite life science industry players in Massachusetts. This event was a great chance to tap into Taipei’s rapidly developing ecosystem of innovators and long-established network of sophisticated capital providers.

During the forum, Dr. Ko Wen-Je, the mayor of Taipei City, gave a keynote speech about the current status and industrial strategy of Taiwan’s biotech industry. The mayor described their current action plan to establish Taiwan as a major hub in the Asia Pacific biotech and pharmaceutical industries, following in the footsteps of Boston. Indeed, their first goal is to improve the ecosystem to build a Boston-like environment that will welcome and foster innovation, starting by implementing changes in regulations, increasing protections for intellectual property, recruiting and cultivating new talent, and providing access to larger amounts of funding. In addition, to promote the spread of ideas and collaborative environment conducive to innovation, the government plans to integrate different science parks and R&D centers in Taiwan into one biocluster. Lastly, Dr. Ko also emphasized their goal of both integrating a global presence locally and differentiating Taiwan from other global players by focusing on specific key industries and developing their own niche. These key industries may include precision medicine, and aging-related technologies.

Boston is regarded as a global center of the life science industry, and Mark Sullivan, Executive Director of Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment, highlighted how the city fosters international collaborations and, with the success of many Boston-based biotech companies, has promoted an environment for startup success. This included the presence of many companies, based in Boston or Taiwan, demonstrating these cross-border partnerships.

Overall, the forum was a great success and provided an opportunity to forge connections between these two key life science hubs.  By launching RESI Taipei, LSN aims to bridge the global life science ecosystem with Taiwan and bring Taiwan startups and investors together with their counterparts from the rest of the world.

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series

Life Science Nation (LSN) and the Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association – Greater Philadelphia (SAPA-GP) are announcing a joint event, bringing the SAPA-GP Venture Forum together with the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference, taking place at the Convene in Philadelphia on June 3rd, 2019. The combined event will bring the global RESI investor and channel partner network together with the SAPA-GP community, creating a unique conference that is greater than the sum of their parts.

RESI conferences are established go-to events for fundraising CEOs, early-stage investors and channel partners that foster a fit in terms of stage of development and product with vetted investor mandates. RESI provides a matching platform to enable the vital flow of capital from investors and thereby helping emerging life science companies bring their products to market at a faster pace. RESI events are held throughout the year at major innovation hubs around the world.

RESI Philadelphia will feature a SAPA-GP Track with panel discussions, Start-up Roadshows, VC-Startup networking and Open-Table Consultations. RESI attendees will have access to this unique content, while SAPA-GP Venture Forum attendees can take advantage of the RESI panel and workshop tracks, as well as gain access to the unique RESI Partnering Forum.

LSN and SAPA-GP hope to see you at RESI Philadelphia! For any questions about SAPA-Track, please reach out to Candice He at c.he@lifesciencenation.com or WeChat: CandiceHe1028.

About SAPA-GP 

Sino-American Pharmaceutical Professionals Association – Greater Philadelphia (SAPA-GP) is to serve the fast-growing community of pharmaceutical and biotech professionals in the Greater Philadelphia area. With a significant concentration of global pharmaceutical companies, biotech companies, and academic institutions, the greater Philadelphia area has been a center of life science discoveries and pharmaceutical innovations. Founded in 2002, SAPA-GP has established a broad-based membership and become one of the region’s premier professional organizations. It strives to bring venture investment from the U.S. and China to support the growth of the local life science entrepreneurship.

About Life Science Nation

Life Science Nation (LSN) accelerates fundraising using its matching platform to create highly compatible relationships between early-stage scientists/entrepreneurs and emerging technology investors. LSN researches and curates market intelligence on two industry sectors: The first is emerging biotech and MedTech companies, which by their ephemeral nature are challenging to find and track. Second, LSN tracks ten categories of early-stage life science investors and identifies who is filling the void left by venture capital. LSN owns and operates the Redefining Early Stage Investments (RESI) conference series, which brings together global early-stage biotech and MedTech companies with early-stage investors. Learn more at www.lifesciencenation.com

By Dennis Ford, Founder & CEO, Life Science Nation; Creator of RESI Conference Series

On March 25th, LSN will hold the inaugural RESI Europe life science partnering conference.  Please review the program guide below, which showcases the dozens of senior investors speaking on RESI’s panels, and the startup finalists who are bringing their novel technologies to RESI’s Innovation Challenge and Pitch Challenge.

RESI is a dedicated early stage investor and channel partner conference. The event is cross silo, and brings together investors and strategic partners seeking drugs, devices, diagnostics, and digitals health technologies.  RESI is unique in that we have a one-to-one investor to fundraising CEO dynamic.

If you want to participate in the first ever RESI Europe, there’s still time to register online and participate in RESI Partnering.  We are looking forward to seeing you in Vienna on Monday.

By Karen Deyo, Investor Research Analyst, LSN

Despite the relatively short span of time digital health, as a sector, has been in existence, there has been an explosion in technology and applications in recent years. The increase in digital applications and services, for providers, payers and consumers, is so pronounced, that governments are scrambling to keep up and provide some sort of regulatory framework that can apply to these cutting-edge technologies. From patient disease management to AI-powered diagnostics to EHR management to care coordination, the diversity within digital health can make it difficult to speak to the sector as a whole.

Addressing some of these questions at RESI Europe, the speakers on the Digital Health Investors panel will share their expertise in this area. The panel will take place from 9:00-9:50 AM, and we recommend that anyone interested in an investor’s perspective on the field of digital health attend!

Moderator: Jonas Jendi (Investment Manager, Industrifonden)

Jonas Jendi is an investment manager at Nordic VC Industrifonden (Stockholm), focused on the life science sector. Industrifonden is one of the largest VC funds in the Nordics, focusing on both tech and life science. The €500m evergreen fund invests in early-stage ventures. The Industrifonden life science team currently has a portfolio of 14 companies, from medtech to biotech, both private and publicly traded. Jonas joined Industrifonden in May 2017, bringing onboard recent experience as an independent board member, angel investor and equity analyst. Between 2001 and 2010, Jonas was CEO at Cogmed, a start-up in the field of evidence-based cognitive training (clinically validated software), based in Stockholm and later in the US. Jonas took the company from the research phase at Karolinska Institute in 2001 to acquisition by Pearson in 2010, then managing the Cogmed integration into Pearson. His background also includes strategy work with The Boston Consulting Group.

Lara Koole (Principal, Philips Health Technology Ventures)

Lara leads the European venture capital activities for Philips, includes running the business-independent Philips health technology venture fund focused on investments in early-stage digital health companies to drive strategic value-add relationships with Philips. Looking for driven entrepreneurs that are passionate and capable to address (part of) the quadruple aim in healthcare, improving outcomes and lowering costs while increasing patient and staff satisfaction. Passionate about technology, strategic investing and working together with great teams to scale their companies bringing strategic and industry expertise of Philips to the table.

Tony Chang (Associate, M Ventures)

Tony Chang, PhD, MBA, is an Investment Associate with the New Businesses team at M Ventures. In this role, Tony is focusing on the early stage venture deals in health-tech and digital health, with a particular attention on digital therapeutics deals. Tony has developed substantial experience in assessing digital health deals for both in-clinic and out-of-clinic applications. Prior to M Ventures, Tony was a technology commercialization officer at the University of Western Cape in South Africa where he was responsible for the development of several industry research collaboration and licensing deals. Previously, Tony was a consultant at the strategy practice of EY in Johannesburg.

Thomas Walbert (Digital Health Innovation Manager, weXelerate)

Stephen Kearney is a medical doctor, working with Hannover Re, one of the world’s largest reinsurers. Stephen’s medical speciality is surgery, with experience in academic pathology via lecturing and research, having specialised in cancer genomics and medical informatics. Approximately half of Hannover Re’s business is in the life and health (re)insurance space. Within these verticals, Stephen’s responsibilities include identifying and developing both internal and external innovation opportunities, including in the area of genomics. Besides medicine, Stephen also has academic qualifications and experience in computer science, data analytics and pharmaceutical business, and an undergraduate degree in biochemistry and physics from University College Dublin (UCD).

Stephen Kearney (Innovation – Life & Health, Hannover Re)

Thomas Walbert is the Digital Health Innovation Manager at weXelerate, where he is responsible for building the Health-Cluster program for fostering digital health innovation and managing a network of mentors and experts. Previously, Thomas was a Start-up Consultant at INiTS, a high-tech incubator based in Vienna. He is a start-up enthusiast who is experienced in building environments and networks where corporations and high-tech start-ups can launch revolutionary business models, products, and services.