TAIEX
<strong>Foreigner stock buys surge</strong>
Foreign investors last week bought a net NT$7.73 billion (US$265.23 million) of local shares after buying a net NT$2.18 billion a week earlier, the Taiwan Stock Exchange said in a statement yesterday. As of Friday, foreign investors had sold NT$773.03 billion of local shares since the beginning of the year, the exchange said. The top three shares bought by foreign investors last week were Innolux Corp (群創光電), Yang Ming Marine Transport Corp (陽明海運) and AU Optronics Corp (友達光電), while the top three shares sold by foreign investors were Shin Kong Financial Holding Co (新光金控), Yuanta Financial Holding
PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥) on Friday reported NT$132.07 million (US$4.57 million) in revenue for last month, its highest monthly figure and 301.32 percent higher than one year earlier, thanks to strong sales in the US of its drug Ropeginterferon alfa-2b, also called Ropeg.
Ropeg, sold in the US as Besremi, is a treatment for a rare type of blood cancer, polycythemia vera. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in November last year granted PharmaEssentia marketing approval for the drug.
“Sales of the drug in the US are better than expected,” PharmaEssentia said in a statement. “The number of doctors that prescribed Ropeg,
PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥) has welcomed a German Supreme Court ruling that it said “set aside” damages it was ordered to pay in a contract dispute with an Austrian drug developer.
At the same time, the Austrian company, AOP Orphan Pharmaceuticals GmbH, said the ruling validated part of its position in the dispute and vowed to continue to pursue damages for breach of contract.
In a filing with the Taiwan Stock Exchange late on Tuesday, PharmaEssentia said it had been notified by its German counsel that the German Federal Court of Justice decided to set aside an unfavorable order to the company by
PharmaEssentia Corp (藥華醫藥) yesterday reported record revenue of NT$225 million for last month, boosted by increasing sales of its blood cancer drug in Europe, it said.
Revenue was 435 percent higher than a month earlier and 3 percent more than a year earlier, company data showed.
The growth in revenue could be attributed to a stable increase in demand from Europe for PharmaEssentia’s ropeginterferon alfa-2b, or Ropeg, which treats polycythemia vera, a rare type of blood cancer, the company said.
There are about 200,000 people with polycythemia vera in Europe, and the drug costs an average of NT$1 million (US$36,048) per person per