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Taiwan's Future Leaders

Founding the World's Largest Antibody Bank

Founding the World's Largest Antibody Bank

Source:CW

Abnova president and CEO Wilber Huang turned his back on a stable career to go out on a limb, founding a biotech company that weds cutting-edge science and effective production processes.

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Founding the World's Largest Antibody Bank

By Ming-ling Hsieh
From CommonWealth Magazine (vol. 468 )

"Ambition is more important than intellect," declares Wilber Huang, the 44-year-old president and CEO of biotech firm Abnova, in his office in Taipei's Neihu district. The young startup entrepreneur impresses with a sophisticated appearance and brightly shining eyes.

Nine years ago Huang gave up a highly paid job as a dermatologist in the United States to launch a biotech venture in Taiwan with financial backing from his father. During the first three years, the father-and-son team increased the company's capital eight times, but still ended up burning through NT$440 million. Without further ado Huang's father Huang Ching-yang, a former vice president of computer and peripherals maker Compeq, mortgaged his house in the United States for a final cash injection of US$2 million that eventually saved the company from going under.

The senior Huang, who serves as Abnova's chairman, was able to draw on his experience in the computer industry. Abnova is proof that the success story of Taiwan's high-tech industry – producing in Taiwan for sale in the global market – can be replicated in other industries. Abnova has already grown into the world's largest antibody bank. The company has registered two-digit revenue growth over the past three years. For the 2007-2009 period, revenue growth even exceeded forty percent. Abnova listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange in late 2009 and posted earnings per share (EPS) of NT$1.83 last year.

Targeted therapy has become a hot topic in the medical world in recent years. One strategy is delivering drugs to targeted cells such as cancer tumors with the help of monoclonal antibodies. These laboratory-produced molecules mimic the antibodies that the body's immune system produces in response to germs, vaccines and other invading substances.

The part of an invader that triggers an antibody reaction is the antigen. Each antibody reacts and binds to a specific antigen as a key fits a lock. Cancerous cells, for instance, produce specific mutated antigens that can be detected with their matching antibody. These antibodies can be used to carry drugs, toxins, or radioactive materials directly to the cancer cells, which makes treatment much more efficient while also helping to prevent healthy cells from being damaged or destroyed.

After the entire human genome was identified in 2000, monoclonal antibodies emerged as a promising new field in medical therapy. The only problem is that producing such antibodies in laboratory mice requires six to eight months of time.

Abnova, however, managed to innovate the antibody production process. Borrowing from the computer industry, Abnova split the antibody development process into several substations, with staff at each substation in charge of a certain phase of the production process. At the same time certain steps were further automated. Thanks to standardized, industrialized mass production, Abnova is able to produce a broader selection and better quality of antibodies for research institutions, pharmaceutical makers or hospitals much faster than its competitors. While ordinary antibody development takes six to eight months, Abnova has managed to shorten the production process to about three months, thanks to its unique technology.

"Essentially it's a top-notch manufacturer. That happens to be Taiwan's strength and competitive edge," notes Hong-jen Chang, general manager of YFY Biotech Management Company.

Crucial to Abnova's success was pinpointing a precise industry niche – a process that took Wilber Huang a full two years.

In 2000 Huang still worked as a physician at the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio. The decoding of the human genome prompted Huang to move beyond the comfort zone of his stable job. While still working during the day, he spent his evenings immersed in the library or attending MBA classes. On weekends he would often fly to places all over the United States visiting biotech companies.

In discussions with his father, Huang learned important entrepreneurial know-how such as target management, mass production and cost control. Gradually, the dermatologist developed a business concept for his startup.

Conscientious and disciplined, Huang is filled with a strong inner drive to push himself beyond the status quo. Huang's family moved to the United States when he was in fifth grade. For family or school reasons the Huangs kept moving to new places, a process that taught Wilbur how to adapt, to face problems and to solve them. In the future Abnova will not only produce antibodies for research laboratories, but plans to develop its own antibody-based drugs for even more exponential business growth.

"Young people really shouldn't consider things based on 'a sense of security,'" Huang asserts. "They should have the guts to say, 'I want to make a difference.'"

Translated from the Chinese by Susanne Ganz

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