Nancy T. Chang

Chang Tang Chang (née Tang Nanshan; ; born 1950), also known by her English name Nancy Chang, is a Taiwanese biochemist. She co-founded the biopharmaceutical company Tanox in 1986. She also developed the asthma drug 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.

Early life and education Chang was born in Taiwan in 1950. Her mother was a surgeon and her father was a civil engineer; they were wealthy waishengren who migrated to Taiwan during the Great Retreat, shortly after marrying.

Chang studied chemistry and physics at Taipei First Girls' High School in Taipei. After graduation, she attended National Tsing Hua University, where one of her undergraduate teachers was Nobel Prize laureate Yuan T. Lee and one of her classmates was scientist Tse Wen Chang. Chang is an angel investor in health-care entrepreneurships and performs philanthropic work in community health-education projects.

In 2005, she was named a Most Respected Woman in Biotechnology (MedAd News, 2005), and also received the Global Business Achievement Hall of Fame Governor's Award from the Global Federation of Chinese Business Women in the Southern U.S.

In 2008 Chang was named to the Forbes Twenty-Five Notable Chinese Americans list.

In 2012, she became the first woman to receive the 14th annual Biotechnology Heritage Award, conferred by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and the Chemical Heritage Foundation.

She is the recipient of several additional awards, such as the Association of Women in Computing: Top 20 Houston Women in Technology and Houston Entrepreneur of the Year.