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.

　　In addition to intermediate-long term new drug researches, PharmaEssentia also conducts short-intermediate term drug development. PharmaEssentia estimates that it can develop one new drug per year. For example, the product developed in 2005 is called Coenzyme Q10, for which Frontier Scientific Inc. of USA has exclusive distributorship rights internationally. To that end the two companies signed an agreement in August 2005. The next product to be released in 2006 is a drug material for cancer-fighting drug, which has already completed its development for the manufacturing process, and the applications for two patents already in the works. Progress for intermediate- to long-term drug research is also going well. An application for human testing of a new drug is expected to be filed by the end of 2006. With regard to strategic alliance with domestic industry players, there has been active participation by PharmaEssentia. For example, a "Letter of Intent for the Joint Development of US Market" was signed with Synmosa Biopharma Corp., another biotechnology company which went public in 2004, to enter the US market selling a nasal spray product. PharmaEssentia is cooperating on a number of projects with Genovate Biotechnology and Maywufa Co. Taiwan has an abundance of research resources in the area of biotechnology; Academia Sinica, the National Health Research Institutes (NHRI), Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Development Center for Biotechnology (DCB), and many schools and universities all make for excellent research partners. PharmaEssentia for one knows how to take advantage of these resources and maintains good working relationships with all of them.

　　Dr. Teng has had just over a year managing PharmaEssentia since her return to Taiwan, and her realization of the difficulty in recruiting and developing research talents encountered by Taiwan is heartfelt. Thus she believes that the Taiwanese government policy to offer subsidy boosting the income of overseas returnees has a tremendous symbolic meaning. It sends a clear message that the government considers the contributions made by overseas returnees valuable. While the amount of the subsidy is not much, it is nonetheless a helpful measure for a newly founded biotechnology company such as PharmaEssentia. Although the level of salary in Taiwan is not comparable to that in US, the employee bonus and stock allocation program represent an alternative and effective means for Taiwanese industries to attract overseas talents.

　　As for life in Taiwan, Dr. Teng indicates that she has readjusted well to the environment where she was born and raised. However her work routines from running a new business differ from those as a company employee in the US, which had a more even-keel pace. In addition to research works, she is also involved in the management and administrative tasks of the company. But even though she is now busier than in the US, Dr. Teng feels it is more meaningful for her.