PharmaEssentia began operation in March 2003. Major shareholders of the company include the Executive Yuan's Development Fund (20%), the Yaohua Glass management Committee (20%), Synmosa (a publicly traded biotechnology company), Genovate, China Technical Consulting Inc. (CTCI), and Maywufa. The company's R&D team consists of researchers from the US with decades of work experiences in drug development. The company currently has close to 40 employees, a quarter of whom were recruited from overseas. The company continues to recruit talents from overseas as well as domestic locations.

　　As the Executive Vice President of PharmaEssentia, Dr. Teng was born and raised in Taiwan. Upon graduation from the School of Pharmacy at Taipei Medical University, Dr. Teng first worked at Mackay Memorial Hospital as a pharmacist. She then studied in the US where she earned a PhD in pharmacy. She has since also worked for the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the ISIS Pharmaceutical company. She specializes in the research of absorption by the stomach and intestines, and the research of special forms of drug dosages. She possesses operational and management experiences working for pharmaceutical organizations in both the government and private sectors. Dr. Teng lived in the US for 25 years, but has always cared about the development of Taiwan's pharmaceutical industry. She believes that the long years of living in the US have made her miss the opportunity to embrace a sense of endearment toward her native country. She is also concerned the number of Taiwanese students studying abroad has dropped noticeably in the past 10 to 20 years, creating a gap in the supply of international talents. Dr. Teng is worried that this will send Taiwanese industries into a growth bottleneck when they seek to further develop their competitiveness. Thus, at this critical juncture as Taiwan's biotechnology industry is poised to take off, Dr. Teng answered the invitation extended to her by her industry colleague, Dr. K. C. Lin, and returned to Taiwan. In doing so, Dr. Teng left behind a well-paid position and even a school-aged child in the US. But she is determined to make her contributions all she can toward the growth of Taiwan's biotech and pharmaceutical industries through her participation in this entrepreneurial business opportunity. ....