01

Chairwoman Ching-Leou Teng: Embracing change, embracing sustainability

"What matters in the biopharmaceutical industry?" This is a question that PharmaEssentia has been asking throughout our journey. In 2022, the third year after the pandemic broke out, we learned to live with the pandemic. How can we continue to exert our influence and fulfill our mission of "Better science, Better lives"? The answer is through scientific research and development of new drugs to alleviate suffering and bring better lives to all. This is a value we continue to seek and explore.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led us to explore the core value of the biopharmaceutical industry. We actively strive for innovation and drug development: in 2021, we obtained FDA and KFDA approval for BESREMi® for the treatment of polycythemia vera. In 2022, our Board of Directors approved the establishment of an innovation research center in the United States to enhance our global R&D capabilities. With tangible results from our new drugs, we bring hope to patients and bring change to the world. To date, our new drugs have reached over 30 countries and have been used by patients worldwide. We are approaching our goal of "devoting ourselves to solving the unmet medical needs around the world, to exploring and developing new drugs and technologies, and to providing patients with affordable and accessible drugs."

While committed to our core business, we also incorporate sustainability into our operations, and involve our employees in the process. In 2022, our sustainability report received the Platinum Award in the Healthcare Industry category at Taiwan Corporate Sustainability Awards (TCSA), as well as the Bronze Award at Global Corporate Sustainability Awards (GCSA). Continuously striving for excellence, we have responded to SDG 13 - Climate Action by adopting the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework for the first time in 2022, completing a climate change risk and opportunity assessment and laying the foundation for climate governance and contributing our efforts in achieving global emission reduction targets. Our efforts in ESG reporting are shown with improved results in Sustainalytics ESG risk assessments and the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI). With the improvement of our ESG ratings at Sustainalytics Risk Ratings, and our CSA scores (published by S&P), we hope to build trust on PharmaEssentia and extend our influence to global stakeholders.

This report is the fourth sustainability report of PharmaEssentia, which presents our operational performance and sustainability efforts. We also welcome your comments to make us stronger in the pursuit of the "essence of medicine," to become a reliable and accountable biopharmaceutical company. Thank you!

02

CEO Ko-Chung Lin: Prepare for global market expansion with innovation

The world is in a state of constant flux and circumstances occur often due to more than one single cause. Under the trend of globalization, many events are interconnected such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, technological advancement, and geopolitical conflicts which all require us to adopt a global mindset and thus the core values and sustainability implications are even more important than ever.

Our key product, the new generation long-acting interferon Ropeg has been granted market approval in various countries, including the EU drug certificate for treating polycythemia vera (PV), and the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration certificate under the brand name for BESREMi®. In 2021, Ropeg also received market approval in Israel, South Korea, and the United States, and was included in the 2022 NCCN treatment guidelines as a treatment option for PV.

Additionally, we continue to conduct clinical trials in multiple countries for Ropeg in new indications such as primary thrombocythemia (ET), hepatitis virus infection, and tumor diseases, aiming for “multiple line extensions with one drug” to help more patients.

We strive to expand our product portfolio; in 2022, a phase 1b clinical trial using Anti-PD1 for hepatitis B and D has started patients’ recruitment. In addition, KX01, a new drug licensed from Athenex in the United States to treat actinic keratosis, has received market approval in Taiwan and to kick off a Phase 3 clinical trial in Japan to meet local regulatory requirements. We continue to integrate resources in new drug development, clinical trial, production and marketing, in order to construct a wholistic and innovative biopharmaceutical company. We embrace a sustainable development mindset and put into action in our R&D to improve patients’ health and well-being.

While we build up a solid operation in PharmaEssentia, we also expand our efforts to outside of PharmaEssentia to engage both internal and external stakeholders and realize our sustainable development roadmap. In 2022, we sponsored projects for the Digital / Tele-Medicine in Rural Area Program by Digital Humanitarian Association, with the goal to the help minority groups in rural areas to receive timely medical care with the help in a digital way. We also sponsored the Jane Goodall Institute on environmental hydrocarbon refrigerants. In the constantly changing world, we stand on a firm footing to face various upcoming challenges; just as we are rooted in Taiwan to march to the world. We hope to lead the biopharmaceutical industry to grow together and reach to new level.