Nancy T. Chang

Nancy Chang
Nancy Chang, 2012
Born	1950 (age 66–67) Taiwan
Residence	United States
Fields	Biotechnology, Biochemistry
Institutions	Tanox
Alma mater	National Tsing Hua University, Harvard
Known for	Xolair
Notable awards	Biotechnology Heritage Award

External video

Nancy Chang, "Do the things you really wanted to do, that really matters to you, because then all the hardships become irrelevant.", Chemical Heritage Foundation

Nancy T. Chang (born 1950) is a biochemist who cofounded Tanox in 1986 to address medical needs in the areas of allergy, asthma, inflammation and diseases affecting the human immune system. Tanox took an innovative approach in developing an asthma drug that focused on the allergy-related basis of asthma, Xolair. In June 2003, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Xolair, the first biotech product cleared for treating those with asthma related to allergies. Tanox was also active in the development of TNX-355, an antibody for the treatment of HIV/AIDS. In 2007, Tanox was sold to Genentech for $919 million. Dr. Chang grew Tanox from an idea to a substantial publicly traded company, doing innovative science. Following her success with Tanox, she has become an angel investor in health-care entrepreneurships and performs philanthropic work in community health-education projects.

Nancy Chang was born in Taiwan in 1950. Her parents were from mainland China, and had travelled to Taiwan after their marriage. Due to political unrest in China, they were not allowed to return, and stayed in Taiwan. Nancy attended Taipei First Girls' High School in Taipei, where "we were trained to compete with the boys". She studied college chemistry the first year in high school and college physics the second year.

Nancy attended Taiwan’s National Tsing Hua University, where she took undergraduate classes from future Nobel Prize winner Yuan T. Lee. There she also met a fellow budding scientist, Tse Wen Chang. They married just a few days before travelling to the United States, where both had received scholarships for graduate school: Nancy at Brown University and Tse Wen at Harvard University. On the plane ride to the United States, Nancy read James Watson’s book on the discovery of the double helix. This sparked her interest in biology, which she had not previously studied. Nancy subsequently changed her academic focus to biology and transferred to the Division of Medical Sciences, Harvard University. The Changs were among the first international students at the Division of Medical Sciences, and Nancy had to work extremely hard due to her unfamiliarity with English. Nancy earned her Ph.D. in biological chemistry from Harvard University.