Bobby Sheng (; born April 1972) is a Taiwanese-American businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist, record producer, and film producer. He is the founder, president and CEO of Bora Pharmaceuticals , Taiwan's largest

pharmaceutical Medication (also called medicament, medicine, pharmaceutical drug, medicinal product, medicinal drug or simply drug) is a drug used to diagnose, cure, treat, or prevent disease. Drug therapy ( pharmacotherapy) is an important part of the ...

company by volume.

Early life and education

Sheng grew up in Huntington Beach, California and went to high school in Irvine, California. He began his business career when he was 14, selling candy to other students at his school. Sheng graduated from

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...

, with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, B.S., B.Sc., SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree that is awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Scienc ...

in economics. From 2020 to 2023 Sheng served as the president of the Berkeley Club of Taiwan.

Career

Hoan Pharmaceuticals and Early Pharmaceutical Ventures

In 1994, around the time Sheng graduated from university, his father, CEO of Hoan Pharmaceuticals, fell ill, leaving him and his sister to run the company as recent graduates. Hoan was known for major CNS/Neurology product distributor in Taiwan with Lexapro and Lendormin as its blockbusters in local market. Affected by the establishment of

National Health Insurance National health insurance (NHI), sometimes called statutory health insurance (SHI), is a system of health insurance that insures a national population against the costs of health care. It may be administered by the public sector, the private sector ...

, Sheng pivoted to expanding his business overseas. As he familiarized himself with the CEO position at the family company, Sheng started seven companies in his time in Taiwan, including the largest distributor of

Kiehl's Kiehl's LLC is an American cosmetics brand retailer that specializes in skin, hair, and body care products. It started as a single pharmacy in Manhattan at Third Avenue and List of numbered streets in Manhattan#10th to 13th Streets, East 13th Str ...

outside of the United States.

Bora Pharmaceuticals

In 2007 Sheng established Bora Pharmaceuticals as a separate entity from Hoan Pharmaceuticals. As Hoan Pharmaceuticals focused more on in-licensing and distribution in Taiwan, Bora Pharmaceuticals focused on drug development and production for international markets. In 2013, Sheng signed a 5-year OEM contract with Eisai Pharmaceuticals and purchased their factory in

Tainan Tainan (), officially Tainan City, is a Special municipality (Taiwan), special municipality in southern Taiwan, facing the Taiwan Strait on its western coast. Tainan is the oldest city on the island and commonly called the "Taiwan Prefecture, ...

. Since April 2017 Bora Pharmaceuticals has been a publicly traded company on the

Taiwan Stock Exchange The Taiwan Stock Exchange Corporation (TWSE; ) is a financial institution, located in Taipei 101, in Taipei, Taiwan. The TWSE was established in 1961 and began operating as a stock exchange on 9 February 1962. It is regulated by the Financial S ...

. Bora Pharmaceuticals have since then supplied drugs for over 100 countries and established facilities in

Zhunan Zhunan Township is an urban township in northern Miaoli County, Taiwan. Its city centre forms a continuous urban area with Toufen. Name Literally, ''Zhúnán'' () means "bamboo south" but in this context, ''zhú'' is short for "Hsinchu". T ...

, Taoyuan, Zhongli,

Zhubei Zhubei ( Wade-Giles: ''Chupei''; Hakka PFS: ''Chuk-pet''; Hokkien POJ: ''Tek-pak'') is a city in Hsinchu County, Taiwan. It is one of the island's fastest-growing settlements, with a population gain of 51,000 between 2010 and 2019, the highes ...

Mississauga Mississauga is a Canadian city in the province of Ontario. Situated on the north-western shore of Lake Ontario in the Regional Municipality of Peel, it borders Toronto (Etobicoke) to the east, Brampton to the north, Milton to the northwest, ...

, and

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. They have been credited for leading Taiwan's CDMO business on an international level.

Ventures Beyond Pharma

Sheng explored ventures in other industries, including marketing, media, and technology. During the dot-com bubble, he gained experiences in mergers and acquisitions by co-founding TheOne.com. Sheng's passion for music led him to establish Machi Entertainment a digital-first record label in Asia with Taiwan entertainer Jeff Huang and Korean producer Jay Chong. Sheng served as producer, financier and executive. In this time, he also started producing films such as '' Smother'' and ''

Minotaur In Greek mythology, the Minotaur (, ''Mīnṓtauros''), also known as Asterion, is a mythical creature portrayed during classical antiquity with the head and tail of a bull and the body of a man or, as described by Roman poet Ovid, a being "par ...

''.

Awards and honors

In 2020 Sheng received the CEO of the Year at the CPhl Awards. In addition Bora Pharmaceuticals has received many honors. In both 2019 and 2024, it received recognition at HR Asia's Best Companies to Work for in Taiwan awards. In 2024, Bora also received HR Asia's Most Caring Company award. In 2023, Bora Pharmaceuticals received the Most Outstanding Company of the Year award from Bio-Asia Taiwan, where Sheng was recognized by Taiwan President

Tsai Ing-Wen Tsai Ing-wen (; pinyin: ''Cài Yīngwén''; born 31 August 1956) is a Taiwanese politician and legal scholar who served as the seventh president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) from 2016 to 2024. A member of the Democratic Progressive Party ...

. In 2024, Bora Pharmaceuticals won the Presidential Innovation Award, and donated the prize money to those impacted by earthquakes in Hualien.

Philanthropy

Since 2021, Sheng has been a Partner in Taishin Healthcare Limited Partnership, a private equity fund focusing on identifying contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) and contract research organizations (CROs) that align with emerging global trends. Sheng is on the advisory board for Berkeley’s College of Chemistry and has multiple philanthropic endeavors with various universities. In 2023, Sheng founded the John Wayne Sheng Foundation, which supports the education of adolescent depression and anxiety.

References

1972 births Living people Taiwanese businesspeople {{Taiwan-business-bio-stub