Taipei: Taiwan’s National Infectious Diseases Bank (NIDB), set for completion next year, is expected to significantly advance the country’s biomedical development through enhanced global health collaboration, officials announced on Friday. National Health Research Institutes (NHRI) President Sytwu Huey-kang indicated that the NIDB will function as a national repository for pathogen samples, establishing a vital foundation for vaccine, diagnostic, and drug research.

According to Focus Taiwan, the NIDB project was first proposed in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when researchers and biotech firms faced challenges in acquiring clinical specimens due to strict isolation protocols. Under the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s guidance, the NHRI partnered with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to facilitate the legal transfer of specimens, such as blood and saliva, from hospitals to the NIDB for broader research purposes.

Sytwu described this as a “major regulatory breakthrough” that bolsters Taiwan’s capabilities in infectious disease research. He further noted that Taiwan has become an official member of two international alliances: the World Federation for Culture Collections (WFCC) and the Asian Consortium for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Microbial Resources (ACM). The WFCC, headquartered in the Netherlands, includes over 100 institutions from 80 countries, while the ACM, based in Japan, comprises around 35 member organizations.

Through these memberships, Taiwan can share its unique pathogen strains and gain access to crucial global samples, enhancing the country’s ability to track disease trends effectively. Sytwu emphasized that future pandemics will inevitably be global, and international collaboration will allow Taiwan to obtain pathogen data more swiftly, improving its preparedness.

Sytwu’s statements were made in response to President Lai Ching-te’s National Day address, where Lai highlighted the NIDB’s pivotal role in advancing Taiwan’s biomedical goals. In his address, Lai stated that the government aims to fortify Taiwan’s biomedical sector through a large-scale innovation program, encouraging more firms to invest in innovative research and development while advancing the industry towards becoming a trillion-NT-dollar sector.