Taiwan, China aim for medical cooperation

Chairman P.K. Chiang of the Taipei-based Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF) and Taiwan's top negotiator with China mentioned in Chongqing Tuesday that medical cooperation and investment protection will be among the major issues for the next and sixth round of high-level cross-strait talks.

Officials at the Mainland Affairs Council, the policy-making agency concerning relations with Beijing, said Taiwan and China may jointly explore the joint development of medicines tackling ailments like tuberculosis and liver disease that affect many people on both sides of the strait.

Cooperation on clinical tests and the field of biotechnology as well as public health administration, including immediate alert on new epidemics, can also be carried out, they said.

The officials said these issues were brought up in previous round of talks but were shelved as both sides spent much efforts to focus on food safety following the eruption of medical cases caused by the abuse of melamine, a highly toxic chemical used in plastics, in dairy and non-dairy cream products shipped from China to Taiwan two years ago.

Officials at the Department of Health backed the expansion of medical cooperation.

But they cautioned that it would be too early to reach any possible arrangement for mutually recognizing each other's certifications of medical products.

The DOH officials explained that unlike in Taiwan, the GMP (good manufacture practice) system to ensure the quality and safety medical products has not yet been fully implemented in China yet.

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