Eastern Group held the inaugural NTU-Eastern Biotech Industry Summit today (10/21) at the International Conference Hall of National Taiwan University College of Law. The main theme of the event was “Exploring the Future of Biotechnology and Upgrading to a Healthy Lifestyle,” which is a topic quite relevant to the post-epidemic era. Eastern Group continues to strive for greater excellence in order to continue to improve and bring consumers more comprehensive and quality products and services. Heavyweight professionals from the industry, government, and academia, as well as a panel of professors and lecturers from NTU were invited to attend the event. These experts include Professor Jeng Shih-Tong, Dean of the NTU College of Life Science; Chien Chung-Liang, Professor of the NTU College of Medicine and CEO of the Institute for Biotechnology and Medicine Industry; Professor Hsieh Shu-Chen, NTU Institute of Food Science and Technology; Distinguished Professor Sheen Lee-Yan, NTU Institute of Food Science and Technology; Associate Professor Edward Chern, NTU Department of Biochemical Science and Technology; Associate Professor Liu I-Li, NTU Institute of Clinical Veterinary Science; Aaron Chen, CEO of TCI Group, a leading biotech company in Taiwan; and Dr. Kuo Hsin-Yu, NTU Institute of Food Science and Technology. The five-hour marathon discussion demonstrated the brand’s strong ambition and proactiveness.

   President Gary Wang of Eastern Group said that in 2021, Eastern and NTU officially established the NTU-Eastern Biotech & Biomed Research Center, which is a powerful alliance between Taiwan’s top research and development institution and a market-leading retailer. It also declares Eastern’s determination to enter the biotechnology industry. In the face of the global trend of population aging, Taiwan’s over age 65 population reached 4.06 million in 2022, and Taiwan will enter a super-aged society by 2025, with 20% of the population over the age of 65. Everyone wants to live a healthier, more beautiful and better quality of life, and these expectations support the rise of the business opportunity on products and services catering for the elderly in the next 30 years. Moreover, the global COVID-19 pandemic has brought about huge changes in lifestyles around the world, resulting in 620 million confirmed cases and more than 6.5 million deaths. The mutations and rapid transmission of the virus have tested human’s ability to respond. We have learned from this that the most effective solution is to improve one’s immune system. The only way to ensure a safe and quality life for yourself and your family is to raise your health awareness and take health food supplements. In the post-pandemic era, it has become a long-term trend to emphasize health and take health supplements.

   In terms of product upgrades and channel applications at Eastern, Gary Wang further pointed out: “Eastern has 10 million members and many of our TV shopping members are aging. From market observation and membership big data analysis, we see the needs of the elderly, so we are committed to developing the best health supplement products, beauty care products and pet health food products. We also hope that through Eastern’s channel distribution development, we can transform the energy of Taiwan’s biotechnology research and development into the best products and sell them to the international market. In the past, Eastern focused itself on channel development in TV, Internet, mobile, MOD, OB, catalog, Strawberrynet, and ecKare. Since 2018, we have been moving into offline development, including Eastern Natural Beauty stores and production centers on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, ETtoday Pets stores, as well as to external channels, including Shopee and live streaming. In addition to channel development, Eastern has also taken on a brand research and development role in addition to the channel role, developing various products that are delicious, beautiful, healthy, lifestyle-oriented, or geared for pets. We have constructed the Eastern online and offline lifestyle circle to meet the lifestyle needs of members. Due to Eastern’s multi-channel and multi-product development, ETMall achieved very good results in its operations in the first half of this year. EPS was NT$8.5 the first half of this year, taking first place in Taiwan’s virtual retail industry in terms of profit! Eastern has been serving its members for over 22 years, and it has upheld the spirit of EHS Select to ensure quality standards based on our rigorous selection criteria. In addition to collaborating with NTU to verify the efficacy of our self-operated products, we have also set up a team of 100 people internally to try out the products to ensure safety for consumers before the product can be launched. This year, the scale of the self-operated products will reach NT$11.2 billion, of which the five categories of self-operated products: delicious, beautiful, healthy, lifestyle, and pets will reach NT$7.7 billion, accounting for 68%. Next year the five categories will reach NT$11.1 billion, and in 2028 it is expected to reach NT$37.7 billion, accounting for 83% of the total self-operated products, in order to serve the vast number of local and overseas members. ”

   In his speech, Dean Jeng Shih-Tong of the NTU College of Life Science affirmed the collaboration between industry-academia between Eastern and NTU. He was very pleased to see that Eastern Group has been able to devote so many resources to research at NTU. NTU is also grateful to Eastern for its investment, which will enable NTU to make more progress in research and training of human resources and technology in the future. Director Pan Min-Hsiung, Institute of Food Science and Technology, praised Gary Wang for his dedication to the philosophy of People, Evidence, and Science as Proof, for his vision and willingness to devote resources to support the academia, and for taking care of small farmers, as well as the efforts in developing the field of health and beauty. He is certain that the Eastern will hold a key economic role in Taiwan in the future.

   Aaron Chen, CEO of TCI Group, said: “It is my first time to participate in the NTU-Eastern Biotech Industry Summit. As a representative of the industry, I am looking forward to the upcoming joint launch of the health product “Marine Star Zinc Complex”, jointly launched by Eastern and TCI. Dr. Kuo Hsin Yu of TCI also reported at the summit today that vitamin C plus zinc is the new COVID-19 virus preventative guideline published by the US National Institutes of Health and Harvard Medical School. A number of studies have confirmed that it is the best health supplement to protect against the pandemic as it can effectively boost the autoimmune system. The rise in awareness of health care in recent years, coupled with the catalyst of the COVID-19 pandemic, has heightened the attention that consumers place on personal health care and protection. This means that there is a growing demand for ‘basic health supplements’ or ‘functional health food’ for general self-care. Eastern and NTU will focus on upgrading functional health products for all age groups, and even on the health food for pets, ‘Mao Gu Li’. From November, it will be available at Family Mart convenience stores, making it even more convenient for consumers. I look forward to seeing the future developments in this area which can be expected to be very fruitful.” ”

   Associate Professor Edward Chen, NTU Department of Biochemical Science and Technology, also conducted efficacy tests on Eastern’s Echealth Haumanu Essence Supplement, which won the “Outstanding Product Award” at the National Brand Yushan Award. He confirmed that after repair experiments and comprehensive analysis of big data, it was found that the Essence Supplement’s purtier placenta can indeed regulate stem cell activity and help repair tissues, and even the potential of “anti-aging”. This is also the direction of the next phase of industry-academia collaboration. Professor Edward Chen said that for the third phase of the commission, it took about a year to conduct the testing, mainly using the diabetic wound repair model. “We have found from the first and second phase that the purtier placenta can help improve human mesenchymal stem cells’ efficacy, certain growth factors, and anti-inflammatory gene performance. At the same time, genetic analysis with big data analysis revealed that it also affects stem cell related and cellular tissue constancy. Therefore, in the third phase of the testing, we gave diabetic mice purtier placenta to test whether the ingredients in purtier placenta could help heal the wounds. It was found that the wound healing rate was faster in the purtier placenta feeding group compared to the control group fed the normal feed. ”

   Chi Kun-Chieh, General Manager of Eastern New Retail, also said: “In the post-pandemic era, Eastern remains committed to producing the best quality EHS Select products, which is very moving.” He also observed that “Taiwanese people like to take health supplements and share them with others. In the past, other brands only emphasized people’s word-of-mouth or physical evidence or a comparison photo of before and after, without any emphasis on scientific verification. Today, Eastern has carefully planned and arranged for the professors, scholars, and experts at NTU, the highest-ranked academic institution in Taiwan, to bring us such insightful scientific explanation, serving as proof that these products can bring great benefit to our health. Eastern really is paying a lot of attention to ensure the best brand, products and services! ”

   To create more quality products for the benefit of our business partners and consumers, Eastern Group is committed to close cooperation between industry and academia. Together with NTU, Eastern has established the NTU-Eastern Biotech & Biomed Research Center with NTU. It is estimated that tens of millions of dollars will be invested each year to for our top-notch team to develop, test, and examine the efficacy of the newest technologies, and actively create “delicious, beautiful, healthy, lifestyle, and pet” product ecosystem for consumers. We will also adhere to the philosophy of “People, Evidence, and Science as Proof”, and spare no effort to ensure and control the quality of products. This year’s newly developed Eastern self-operated products, such as the “Strawberry Probiotic Sanitary Pads,” “Marine Star Zinc Complex,” the Eastern Farm x CooKing co-branded cooking kit (black pepper beef tenderloin and curry chicken), and the “Mao Gu Li” brand for pets, will also be available for sale in November at Family Mart convenience stores. In the post-pandemic era, Eastern strives to bring the consumer public more diversified, more convenient and smarter new choices for lifestyle consumption.