Compaq, Taiwanese academia may sign JV on biotech

TAIPEI: US computer maker Compaq Computer Corp is discussing setting up a

biotech firm or joint venture with Taiwan's top academic body Academia Sinica, a

company official said on Friday.

While the exact form of cooperation is still undecided, discussions have

included establishing a company, forming a strategic alliance or joint venture,

Andy Lai, general manager of Compaq Taiwan Business Units, told reporters.

Financial details of the proposed cooperation were not revealed.

Compaq's latest move comes on the heels of rival International Business

Machines Corp whose head of life sciences division came to Taiwan earlier this

month detailing new biotech solutions with its data and storage management, and

high-performance computing.

Amid a deteriorating economy as industry after industry relocate to low-cost

countries, particularly China, Taiwan is touting biotech as a key engine of

future growth. Taiwan's government had said it would invest T$10 billion

annually in the coming five years to develop its nascent biotechnology industry.

Academia Sinica and Compaq Computer Taiwan Ltd. signed a cooperative

memorandum on Friday while promising to develop the island's biotechnology

sector.

Under the memorandum, Academia Sinica's biotech research team would use

Compaq's computing systems, applicable data storage equipment and technology

platforms for life science studies, the computer maker said in a statement.

Biotechnology, pharmaceutical and agro-chemical companies' requirement for

supercomputing power, data storage and specialized software programs makes life

science an increasingly enticing prospect for IT companies, especially when

sales of computers to other firms are showing signs of slowing down.

IBM has formed a life sciences business unit to deliver leading-edge IT

solutions for biotechnology industry and had signed an agreement with the

proteomics unit of Canada's MDS Inc earlier this year.

Compaq is already a big supplier of servers to the life science sector -

including its partnership with US Celera Genomics to write powerful computer

software and build a supercomputer to go through the genome sequence and find

out where the genes are and what they do.

(C) Reuters Limited 2001.