A Taiwan-based contract manufacturer of cells for regenerative medicine is hoping to expand business with Japanese biotechnology firms with its new factory in northern Taiwan.
Locus Cell held a ceremony on Thursday to mark the opening of the Hsinchu plant.
The firm’s chairman, Jiunn-Rong Chiou, said Locus Cell aims to become a strategic manufacturing base like the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, or TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
He said Locus Cell is eager to receive more orders from biotech firms in Japan, as well as the United States and Europe.
The company plans to install cutting-edge equipment to mass-produce cells and help reduce costs. It will use robots that were partially developed by experts from Japan’s Waseda University.
Katayama Kazuyuki, chief representative of the Japan-Taiwan Exchange Association’s Taipei office, said he hopes Japan and Taiwan will build a collaborative relationship to complement and support each other in the field of regenerative medicine, and realize a win-win business model.
Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s administration views the biotechnology sector as one of Taiwan’s key growth industries after semiconductors.