First, the development of biotechnology industry in China
In recent years, China has made remarkable progress in the field of biotechnology, which is highlighted in the following aspects:
First, the rapid development of production and the continuous expansion of related fields. China's biotechnology originated in the 1980s, and the genetic engineering pharmaceutical industry developed rapidly. The sales of genetically engineered drugs and vaccines reached 220 million yuan in196, increased to 720 million yuan in198, and reached 2.28 billion yuan in 2000, with an average annual growth rate of 79.42%, among which interferon accounted for the highest proportion, followed by hepatitis B vaccine and interleukin.
Second, important achievements have been made in biotechnology research and development. In order to accelerate the development of biotechnology industry, China has always listed biotechnology as a major national science and technology plan. The government has greatly increased investment in research and development, and at the same time encouraged the state to increase investment in science and technology, and achieved good results. A number of new genes with intellectual property rights have been obtained, new expression systems, bioengineering and drugs have entered the creation stage, and a series of key platform technologies have been established. The transgenic technology of animals and plants is mature, and it has the conditions for large-scale gene sequencing and biological gene research. Hybrid rice has been popularized in a large area, and transgenic cotton and tomato have entered commercial development. Dozens of gene drugs have entered the practical stage.
Third, China has a good foundation in biotechnology research and development. At present, there are 20 thousand technicians engaged in biotechnology research and development, and 4,500 college students and graduate students graduate every year. Many outstanding graduates go abroad for further study. In the research and development of biotechnology, a research team with certain competitiveness has been formed. Entering biotechnology, increasing the depth of scientific research and the penetration of other technologies will form new interdisciplinary and marginal disciplines, promote their development and make a qualitative leap in China's scientific and technological level.
Fourth, biotech enterprises are constantly growing, because biotechnology has broad prospects and great development potential. Enterprises engaged in the development of biotechnology products have mushroomed in China. In 2000, there were more than 200 biotechnology companies, and at the same time, there were more than 60 listed companies directly or indirectly engaged in biotechnology industry, and leading biotechnology enterprises such as Shenzhen Kexin and Tianjin TEDA appeared.
Second, the international development status and trends
At present, the concentration of biotechnology industry in China is low, and there is no enterprise industry of a certain scale. In 2000, the output value was more than 20 billion, which was far from the output value of biotechnology industry in the United States in 2000.
The development of global biotechnology industry presents the following characteristics:
The emergence of a number of major technologies that will affect the future, such as human genomics/protein genomics, stem cell technology and tissue engineering, bioinformatics, transgenic technology, cloning technology, biochip/protein chip/tissue chip, gene therapy and cell therapy, antisense nucleic acid technology, monoclonal antibody technology, etc., has had a great impact on modern life science and biotechnology industry.
The pattern of biotechnology industry has changed from treating diseases to treating diseases, protecting health and improving the quality of life.
Average R&D expenses of multinational companies; D The ratio of input to sales revenue has exceeded 65,438+00%, and innovative heavy products are constantly emerging. In 2000, the largest biotechnology company in the United States had a sales revenue of $2.4 billion and a net profit of over $600 million.
Mergers and acquisitions are becoming more and more fierce, and large enterprises are getting bigger and bigger. Collaborative competition has become the mainstream of biotechnology industry. Since 1998, the world biopharmaceutical industry has undergone earth-shaking changes. Four of the top five in the global market are the result of restructuring, and the market concentration of the top 20 is as high as 67.8%.
Small enterprises are moving towards specialization, especially in the biopharmaceutical industry. For example, Amgen, Genentech, Celera and Isis have become models in the fields of genetic engineering drugs, large-scale genome sequencing and bioinformatics, and antisense nucleic acid drugs.
Three. Problems in Biotechnology Industry in China
Compared with the development of international biotechnology industry, the gap between China's biotechnology industry and the international level is obvious. The specific performance is as follows:
1. There are too few independent intellectual property rights and limited competitiveness.
In the United States, when biotechnology high-tech enterprises are founded, in the first and second financing (namely, seed capital period and venture capital period), it is generally that technology investors control more than 50% of the shares, while capital investors are minority shareholders, which is very common in North America. With the continuous expansion of enterprise scale and the continuous increase of enterprise financing, entrepreneurs (technology owners) gradually lose absolute control, but the enterprise itself is a complete modern enterprise mechanism. At present, there are still defects in this issue in China, which is directly manifested in the fact that intangible assets are all below 35% in the ownership structure.
At present, China is very backward in supporting technologies and equipment such as important instruments, equipment and reagents needed for biotechnology industry and industrial development, mainly relying on foreign imports. The supporting technology and equipment of biotechnology industry have two characteristics. First, it involves the intersection of multi-disciplinary and multi-technical fields; Second, the vast majority of companies that produce and operate special instruments and equipment own the international market. Only by occupying the international market can they survive and develop in the international competition. At present, China does not have the ability to independently research and develop production and occupy the international market.
2. The investment is seriously insufficient, and the research and development ability is very limited.
Biotechnology industry is a capital-intensive industry with high investment, high risk and high return. Therefore, the shortage of funds is the first problem to be solved. At present, in China, there are many phenomena of non-repayment. The lack of a complete credit system has become a serious problem that hinders China's industrial development. How to establish and improve the reputation system is a very important issue. While increasing investment in production technology, the state should also make full use of bank loans and the venture capital market to be improved, and look for various channels of funds. The government should formulate preferential policies to encourage enterprises to participate in the research and development of biotechnology.
At present, the capital financing channel of Chinese enterprises is only funded by entrepreneurs; Investment by listed companies and private enterprises; Government venture capital; SME Guarantee Fund of Ministry of Science and Technology; Five types of technological innovation funds for small and medium-sized enterprises. Among them, the investment of listed companies and private enterprises, precisely because of their ignorance and disapproval of the above intangible assets, often leads them to rely on the tangible capital provided by them to hold the shares of the invested enterprises, which has seriously hit the enthusiasm of entrepreneurs. In North America, where biotechnology is the most developed in the world, there are many financing channels for SMEs. They can make use of entrepreneurs' personal contributions, private equity funds, government SME guarantee funds (managed by banks, with the proportion of government guarantee ranging from 75% to 90%), industrial research funds (approved grants, such as the National Research Institute of the United States and the Canadian Ministry of Industry and Technology), venture capital, bank loans, and enterprise mergers and acquisitions (mergers and acquisitions).
3. Disordered competition seriously leads to the lack of overall advantages.
At present, there is no national organization and management organization responsible for the research, development and industrialization of biotechnology industry in China, and there is no overall strategic deployment. At present, although various national scientific research plans attach importance to basic innovation research to varying degrees, they tend to choose research projects that can produce benefits in the short term in the specific implementation and operation process, resulting in a lack of innovation sources. What's more, there is a lack of necessary communication and coordination among the plans, and all departments and localities are fragmented, resulting in scattered scientific research forces and lack of synergy, resulting in low-level duplication.
4. Lack of industrialized talents, and R&D is out of touch with industrialization.
The development of biotechnology industry is also inseparable from talents. Due to the long training period of R&D personnel, a large number of outstanding scientific researchers are stranded abroad, and there is a lack of outstanding talents in China, especially technical and operational talents. In addition, the existing biotechnology talents in China are mainly theoretical research, and the industrialized talents are relatively lacking. In the development of China's biotechnology industry, it is often difficult to industrialize the scientific research results of laboratories, or the industrialization cost is high and there is no economic value.
5. The overall environment for industrial development is not good.
The development of biotechnology industry can not be separated from the improvement of the overall environment, although some areas in China have formulated relevant policies and formed a certain environment conducive to the development of biotechnology industry. However, it still needs to be improved on the whole, and it is urgent to establish an effective mechanism to promote the industrialization of scientific research achievements, especially to establish a venture capital mechanism that matches the national investment.
Fourth, the countermeasures for the rapid development of biotechnology industry in China
1. Improve and perfect the management system, and establish industry organizations and management institutions.
To develop China's biotechnology industry, it is necessary to combine the specific national conditions of China, and at the same time use the adjustment means of government and market resource allocation to revitalize the stock of technology, equipment, facilities and talents in China. , so as to effectively integrate the advantages of all aspects; We must mobilize the internal motivation and cohesion of the state, local governments, enterprises and scientific and technological personnel at the same time; We must make up our minds to solve the long-standing problem of division between departments and localities and low-level duplication.
Therefore, it is suggested that the state should set up a national organization and management organization in time to make overall planning, coordination and guidance for the national biotechnology industry and industrial development, so as to achieve overall coordination, avoid multi-head command and multi-head government, and realize the unity, simplicity and efficiency of the decision-making, coordination and implementation system.
2. Adjust the strategic layout and form industrial clusters.
The experience of foreign biotechnology industry development shows that in some areas with good geographical, transportation, information and policy environment, it is easy to form a "gathering area" for biotechnology industry R&D and industry.
According to the current situation of China's biotechnology industry and industrial development, combined with the existing national high-tech industrial development zones, Shanghai, Beijing, Shenyang and other places with relatively strong technical force, good investment environment and certain biotechnology industry foundation can be selected as biotechnology industrialization bases, and more favorable fiscal and tax support policies can be given. Selectively focus on developing 3-5 biotechnology industry clusters, give play to the agglomeration effect of biotechnology industry development, and form a larger biotechnology industry scale as soon as possible.
3. Increase government investment and establish a national biotechnology industry major project incubator.
The difficulty and low conversion rate of scientific and technological achievements in China have restricted the development of high-tech industries and affected the role of science and technology as the primary productive force, which has become a common concern. Because of its comprehensive and multidisciplinary characteristics, the transformation of biotechnology industry is more special. Under the condition that China's capital market is not perfect at present, the role of incubator is particularly important.
The function of incubator is to establish extensive contacts with R&D institutions, effectively guide enterprises to intervene, closely combine the upstream and downstream of biotechnology industry, effectively incubate individual technological breakthroughs into mature supporting technologies and processes as soon as possible, and transfer and radiate technologies to the industry, thus accelerating the commercialization and industrialization of technologies and products with commercial prospects as soon as possible. Therefore, on the basis of existing work, combined with the implementation of major projects and major industrial projects with independent intellectual property rights and uniqueness, several national major project incubators for biotechnology industry should be established.
4. Vigorously develop intermediary organizations of biotechnology industry and coordinate the development process of biotechnology enterprises.
The successful experience of foreign countries shows that intermediary organizations have played an important role in the development of high-tech industries, and intermediary organizations are an important part of the innovation system. China should vigorously develop intermediary institutions engaged in information consultation, technology assessment (including biosafety assessment), patent agency (especially foreign patents) and investment and financing of biotechnology industry.
We believe that the biotechnology industry association should be established as soon as possible. The establishment of biotechnology industry association is conducive to information communication and cooperation, to standardizing the market and fair competition, to avoid unnecessary duplication, and to gradually form a pattern of socialized development. The association is mainly composed of enterprise legal persons and senior managers, and attracts technical, management and marketing experts from universities and research institutions to participate. Government departments can organize and coordinate the overall work through associations. Actively guide and support qualified scientific research institutions and enterprises to establish research and development institutions, and improve the efficiency of information collection, technology introduction, intelligence introduction, personnel training, international cooperation and exchange and even product export.