"One of the most obvious experiences is that there are significantly more capitalists coming to the conference this year." Wu Fan, co-founder and vice president of Kang Sheng Biologicals, who finished attending the 12th China Biological Industry Conference that opened in Guangzhou, lamented, "This is a signal that the biomedical industry is becoming more and more active in the Greater Bay Area."
This is an opportunity and a challenge for Zhongshan.
After years of cultivation and development, Zhongshan's biopharmaceutical industry has come to the fore.
In June, a lot of good news came out of the National Health Base located in the Zhongshan Torch Development Zone: firstly, Guangdong Zhonghao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. researched and developed the world's first drug of Class 1.1 with independent intellectual property rights - Benvimod cream (trade name: Xinbike), which was approved by the State Drug Administration (SDA). (trade name: Xinbike), which was listed on the market after passing the priority review and approval process by the State Drug Administration, which is a landmark achievement of China's international leadership in this area. ("Kangfang Bio-pharmaceuticals") was honored with the "Excellence in Biopharmaceuticals Award" for its innovative bifunctional antibody product development platform and pipeline for tumor immunotherapy at the China Financing Awards 2019 held in Hong Kong on June 21st.
The Outline of the Plan for the Development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area proposes to "support Zhongshan in promoting biomedical science and technology innovation". As a key emerging industry in Zhongshan, the biomedical industry has accumulated a certain industrial foundation. In contrast to Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities, the lack of "big hospitals and big institutes" in Zhongshan how to build on their strengths and avoid shortcomings, find their own position in the biomedical industry chain in the Greater Bay Area?
Industrial layout
From "a base" to a three-legged tripod
Reviewing the interaction between Zhongshan City and Hong Kong and Macao since last year, there is a detail that is intriguing.
In March and June 2018, following the visit of Zhongshan delegation led by the main leaders of Zhongshan City to key enterprises, higher education institutions and science and technology creation bases in Hong Kong and Macao at the beginning of 2018, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Mrs. Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor, and the Chief Executive of Macao Special Administrative Region, Mr. Fernando Chui Sai On, made a return visit to Zhongshan successively.
It is worth noting that both Mrs. Lam and Chui Sai On chose the National Health Base in Zhongshan City as one of the important places to visit, and had in-depth exchanges with enterprises in the health base.
Following that, in July 2018, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Biomedical Industry Innovation and Development Zhongshan Summit was held in Zhongshan City, and the "Guangdong Pharmaceutical University-Hong Kong University Innovation Platform" was settled in the National Health Base in Zhongshan City.
All the signs indicate that in the embrace of cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, Zhongshan health pharmaceutical industry ran ahead.
Zhongshan biomedical scale development trajectory, can be traced back to more than 20 years ago. 1994, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the People's Government of Guangdong Province and the Zhongshan Municipal People's Government jointly founded the National Health Science and Technology Industrial Base, the site of the Torch Development Zone, is China's first according to the internationally recognized standards of GLP, GCP, GMP and GSP construction of the national integrated health industry park, the total planning area of 13.5 square kilometers. The total planning area is 13.5 square kilometers. After years of development, it has already gathered more than 300 enterprises, forming an industrial cluster pattern with the synergistic development of biomedicine, medical devices, smart health, health food and cosmetics, and is one of the first pilot parks for innovative industrial clusters in China, a national industrial demonstration base for new-type industrialization, a national industrialization base for digital healthcare in modern service industry, and a national science and technology business incubator.
Relying on the high starting point of the platform, the industry has gained considerable development. A landmark event that better reflects the status of Zhongshan's healthcare industry is that the "Wu Jieping Medical Prize", the highest level award in the field of medicine and healthcare, has been held for 10 consecutive years in Zhongshan.
High-end summits are being held more and more frequently in Zhongshan. In April this year, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Zhongshan Biomedical Industry Summit Forum was held in Zhongshan Cuiheng New District, which also released another signal: the layout of the biomedical industry has become an important part of Zhongshan's participation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area construction of the forefront of the construction of the Cuiheng New District. This can also be glimpsed from the specifications of the forum: the forum invited nearly 60 experts and scholars from the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Drug Innovation, the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and other famous institutions, research institutes, universities and representatives of the State Key Laboratory in the field of pharmacy, etc., to carry out strategic research for the development of the biomedical industry in Zhongshan City and even in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Bay Area, to plan the layout of future development.
With the Zhongshan Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Drug Innovation (South China Branch) settled in Cuiheng New District, with the advancement of the construction of Sino-German (Zhongshan) Biomedical Industrial Park, Zhongshan biomedical industry layout has completed the full coverage of the eastern cluster of towns: Torch Area National Health Science and Technology Industrial Base, Cuiheng New District Biomedical Science and Technology Park and Nanlang Town, South China Modern Chinese Medicine City. Among them, the Torch Area National Health Science and Technology Industrial Base focuses on the development of biomedicine, medical device innovation, research and development and incubation acceleration, a new generation of information technology and health and medicine industry fusion development and other fields, to support its expansion to the people and other towns to enhance the space for industrial development; Cui-Heng New Biomedical Science and Technology Park focuses on the development of biopharmaceuticals, medical equipment, pharmaceutical equipment and other fields of innovation, research and development and industrialization of the project, relying on universities and scientific research institutes to build a high-level innovation platform. Cuiheng New District Biomedical Science and Technology Park focuses on the development of innovative R&D and industrialization projects in the fields of biopharmaceuticals, medical devices and pharmaceutical equipment, and relies on universities and scientific research institutes to build high-level innovation platforms and research institutes; Nanlang Town, South China Modern Chinese Medicine City focuses on the development of modern traditional Chinese medicines, bio-health products, and medical devices.
The development trend
Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao group cooperation
From the Torch Development Zone to the Cuiheng New District, the health of the pharmaceutical "development to the east", but also to the east bank of the Pearl River City, a collaborative innovation A strong signal.
Zhongshan has a long history of cooperation with the health industry in Hong Kong and Macau. At present, a number of Hong Kong-funded enterprises, including Federal Pharmaceuticals, Arbor Pharmaceuticals, Xinyikang Biotechnology, Ouya Packaging, Qitai Drinking Tablets and others have settled in the city, making important contributions to Zhongshan's economic development. In addition, Zhongshan's local pharmaceutical chain drugstore, CIIC Pharmaceutical Group, has completed the registration of proprietary Chinese medicine standards in Hong Kong for its Senqi Oral Liquid and Shiqi External Sensory Granules, and more than 10 wall-breaking beverage products have completed the registration of food exports in Hong Kong.
In 2017, Jincheng Pharmaceutical, an enterprise in the health base industrial park, signed a tripartite contract with Italy's DuoFa and Hong Kong's Levi's International to build a base for research on cephalosporin reference preparations and the industrialization of high-quality cephalosporin preparations in the core area of the Sino-German (Zhongshan) Biomedical Industrial Park.
In the context of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area plan, the idea of cooperation between Zhongshan and Hong Kong to create a national biomedical science and technology innovation zone has also attracted attention from both sides. As far as Zhongshan is concerned, Hong Kong's pharmaceutical regulatory system mechanism, free port function, and role in connecting to the international arena are advantageous for it to strive for policies such as the simultaneous application of global innovative medicines, and the pioneering research and application of cutting-edge medical technologies such as cellular immunotherapy. Utilizing Zhongshan's industrial base and Hong Kong's resource advantages, the Innovation Zone can be built into a world-class biomedical R&D cluster, an international biomedical industry base, an international first-class high-end medical technology service cluster, a demonstration base for deepening cooperation and innovation, and a platform for high-level international exchanges and cooperation in the health field. According to the plan, Zhongshan health base will also actively docking University of Hong Kong "State Key Laboratory of Biomedicine", Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks and other high-end innovation resources, relying on Zhongshan incubation and acceleration carriers and industrial parks to achieve technological transformation.
At the same time, scientific research cooperation with Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the field of biomedicine has also accelerated significantly.
In terms of cooperation with Guangzhou universities, the interaction with Guangdong Pharmaceutical University is the most typical. According to the "Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Zhongshan Municipal People's Government *** build Guangdong Pharmaceutical University Zhongshan Campus Agreement", the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Zhongshan Municipal Government approved the Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, "Provincial and Municipal *** build the master plan". According to the plan, the Guangdong Provincial Department of Education, Zhongshan Municipal Government will focus on supporting the Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, the University of Hong Kong and Zhongshan **** to build a new type of R & D institutions (science and technology business incubators and technology transfer centers), the State Key Laboratory of Biomedicine, Zhongshan Branch.
In terms of docking with Shenzhen, Cuiheng New District, which has the advantage of location, is one step ahead -- introducing the Shenzhen Medical Device Industrial Park as a whole.
The project is jointly carried out by the Shenzhen Medical Device Industry Association and the Zhongshan National Health Base, with a total investment of 1.46 billion yuan, the relevant person in charge revealed. This covers an area of 283 acres of industrial park, has been included in Guangdong Province, "Pearl River West Bank advanced equipment manufacturing" key projects, has been introduced into the Chinese Academy of Sciences Shanghai Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences South China Branch, according to the plan will be in Cuiheng New District construction of drug clinical research, drug safety evaluation, drug research and development and large molecule drugs, such as the production of research platforms.
All indications are that the biomedical industry in Zhongshan has ushered in a new stage of development.
■Sample
Innovative Drugs
In March this year, Zhongshan Kangfang Biomedical Co. ("Kangfang Bio") announced that its subsidiary, Kangfang Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. initiated Phase Ib/II clinical trials in China for its new anti-PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody drug, AK104.
"This is another major milestone achieved in the AK104 program, following the completion of Phase Ia clinical trials in Australia." Xia Yu, Ph.D., Chairman, President and CEO of Kangfang Bio, said, "In the future, Kangfang Bio will also initiate several clinical studies of AK104 monotherapy as well as AK104 combinations targeting a variety of malignant tumors, so as to provide cancer patients around the globe with access to good drugs made in China." It is reported that this is the first dual antibody product independently developed by Kangfang Bio utilizing Kangfang's unique Tetrabody dual antibody platform, and is also the world's first PD-1/CTLA-4 bispecific antibody to enter clinical trials.
As a biopharmaceutical company located in the National Health Base in Zhongshan, Kangfang Bio's most widely known "achievement" in the industry is the company's development of tumor immunotherapy monoclonal antibody drug AK-107, which was selected by international giant Merck Sharp & Dohme to buy the exclusive global development and sales rights. In November 2015, Kangfang Bio and Merck Sharp & Dohme, headquartered in New York's Bay Area, New Jersey, entered into a cooperation on the research, development and promotion of AK107, a monoclonal antibody drug for tumor immunotherapy. This immune checkpoint-blocking antibody, discovered by Kangfang Bio in China and used in tumor immunotherapy, will be given exclusive global development and promotion rights by Merck Sharp & Dohme, and Kangfang Bio will receive an upfront payment, as well as stage-by-stage payments totaling $200 million, covering development and promotion. The breakthrough also provides a reference path for domestic pharma companies and startups to get out of the "external enclosure wall.
Kangfang Bio, an innovative Chinese biotech company, has licensed a monoclonal antibody drug developed entirely in-house to one of the world's top 5 pharma giants, a move that is seen as a "new breakthrough for domestically produced innovative medicines in the overseas market" by the industry. Zhang Peng, vice president and chief operating officer of Kangfang Biologicals, said that the growth and development of Kangfang Biologicals is inextricably linked to the internationalization of technology docking and vision of cooperation: "We will continue our strategic cooperation with domestic and foreign pharmaceutical companies in multiple forms, **** with the rapid introduction of self-developed new antibody drugs from the stage of drug discovery to the market."
"The innovation path based on internationalization is the direction Kangfang Bio has been insisting on." Since obtaining 300 million yuan of Series B financing, Kangfang Bio has been advancing in two main areas: new drug clinic and site selection for production. In the next area of production line design and equipment, the advanced experience of San Francisco Bay Area and New York Bay Area in the field of biopharmaceuticals will become the object of reference for Kangfang Bio.
■Observations
From industry agglomeration to innovation leadership:
Breaking through the short board of industrial development that has the quantity but lacks the power
Health and medicine industry is a major advantageous industry in Zhongshan. Since 1994, Zhongshan was approved to build the country's first national health science and technology industrial base, relying on the high starting point of the platform, the industry has gained considerable development. A landmark event that better reflects the status of Zhongshan's health and medicine industry is that the highest level of awards in the field of national medicine and health "Wu Jieping Medical Award" has been held in Zhongshan for 10 consecutive sessions.
But another unavoidable fact is that the existing innovation platforms in Zhongshan, including those in the healthcare industry, are not of a high level, and most of them are enterprise-led, oriented to the development of technological applications, with a weak capacity for original innovation. Although from the carrier construction, enterprise agglomeration effect, Zhongshan has a national health science and technology industry base, South China modern Chinese medicine city, such as national and provincial industrial parks, but also to establish an industrial innovation and service system covering the process of research and development, pilot, testing, inspection, results transformation, etc. Gathered the backbone of Novartis Sandoz, Federal Pharmaceuticals, Kangfang Biologicals, Mingfeng Medical and other key enterprises, the formation of a covering biopharmaceuticals, chemical drugs, Modern Chinese medicine, medical devices and other fields of industrial clusters, but lack of major innovation platforms with strong original innovation capabilities and strong attraction to high-end talents and industry leaders.
According to statistics, in 2017, the output value of health medicine in Zhongshan City was about 80 billion yuan, which is still a certain distance away from the "100 billion" industrial cluster. According to the Action Plan for the Development of Health and Pharmaceutical Industry in Zhongshan City (2018-2022) issued by Zhongshan City in August 2018, the city's health and pharmaceutical industry will reach 120 billion yuan by 2022, with a 50% increase in output value compared with that of 2017.
To realize such a leap, the industrial development model oriented to the development of technological applications obviously appears relatively weak. Especially since the implementation of the cluster development strategy in Zhongshan, the eastern clusters including Torch Development Zone, Cuiheng New District, Nanlang Town, its key development industries are aimed at health medicine. Then, into a new round of development stage, how to realize from the "quantitative change" to "qualitative change" of the industrial map, the most core scientific and technological innovation capacity is obviously to keep up.
From the point of view of the trajectory of industrial development in the world's Bay Area, whether in the New York metropolitan area or the San Francisco Bay Area, the health and pharmaceutical industry is one of the most important industries that the government attaches great importance to. For example, New Jersey has a strong health and pharmaceutical industry in the United States, is the representative of the eastern part of the New York Bay Area, to the development of more mature pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies, more than 100 of the world's top 500 companies to set up factories or various types of branches in Middlesex County, which is known as the "Healthy City" in New Brunswick. ". Under the leadership of leading enterprises, the city's health and pharmaceutical industries developed, giving rise to a large number of industry supporting small and medium-sized enterprises, developed around the health, medical development of the tertiary industry, while having a strong scientific research and innovation strength - Rutgers University is located in the United States on Highway 1, "High-Tech Corridor Rutgers University is located at the northern end of the U.S. Highway 1 "High Tech Corridor", and Princeton University is at the southern end of the corridor, which is strung together with universities and scientific research institutes with leading levels in many fields. The San Francisco Bay Area is located in the northeastern part of the city of Oakland, the health of the pharmaceutical industry has also formed a certain scale, many of these biotechnology companies originated in Silicon Valley, the core of the innovation of the surrounding areas of the radiation driven role is obvious.
The development of these Bay Area cities can bring inspiration to Zhongshan is that, in addition to the introduction of enterprises and build a technology transfer platform, to do a solid foundation of health and medicine industries, there is another dimension worth paying attention to: the introduction of related professional fields at home and abroad ranked top universities, research institutes, in Zhongshan cooperation to build laboratories, technological innovation platforms, gathering academics, the industry, the cutting-edge talent to carry out collaborative innovation, and promote the latest advanced research papers of the industry into the transformation of the industry. The latest and most advanced research papers in the industry are transformed into new technologies, new materials and new processes to improve products.
From the current development trend of the biomedical industry in Zhongshan, relying on the national health base shows a trend of continuous expansion to the east: inward, in Cuiheng New District layout of Sino-German (Zhongshan) Biomedical Industrial Park and Shenzhen Medical Devices Industrial Park, Nanlang Town to develop the South China Modern Chinese Medicine City and other industrial platforms, the development of the group; outward, it is actively with Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other places in the biomedical R & D institutions, industry docking, seeking synergistic innovation and development, to undertake the transformation of the results of the new path.
Zhongshan biomedical industry "eastward" layout, by accelerating the concentration of innovative elements, the goal is to form a scientific research, innovative R & D pilot conversion, assembly testing, clinical trials, demonstration and promotion of biomedicine as one of the whole elements of the innovation chain. This will provide stronger support for the eastern cluster of Zhongshan, which is y integrated into the Pearl River Estuary, to build a complete industrial chain with biomedicine as the leading industry and scientific and technological research and development, and results transformation as the core.
■Outlook
Collecting "small and living" enterprises
Can bring opportunities for the dislocated development of Zhongshan
Despite the fact that the biopharmaceutical industry in Zhongshan has made great progress in the past few years, the industry is still in the process of developing. Zhongshan biomedical industry has made great progress, and from the current layout of the key industries in Zhongshan City and the introduction of policy support, this is a new growth point of high hopes: "Zhongshan City, the health of the pharmaceutical industry development action plan (2018-2022)," proposed that by 2022, Zhongshan to achieve the total output value of the health of the pharmaceutical industry scale of 1200 billion yuan.
It is expected to become the next hundred billion emerging industries in Zhongshan, biomedical industry is currently in the Greater Bay Area biomedical field in what position? Against Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, Zhongshan and what opportunities? In this opportunity, what are the most critical elements of development?
No doubt, Zhongshan biopharmaceutical industry ushered in new opportunities. However, compared with Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities on the east bank of the Pearl River, Zhongshan is still weak in terms of scale, volume and innovation capacity.
From the industrial characteristics, Shenzhen and Guangzhou have obvious advantages in the field of clinical diagnosis, innovative drugs, cell therapy, while Zhongshan is currently involved in protein and antibody drug research and development, high-end medical equipment, etc., but the foundation is far less than Guangzhou and Shenzhen.
"On the one hand, it has to do with industrial accumulation, and on the other hand, it also has to do with the supporting role of universities and other innovative resources." Hu Sijin, deputy general manager of Guangdong Zhonghao Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. said Zhongshan can begin to take over the transformation of achievements, the introduction of "small and living" high-growth companies, to stimulate the effect of industrial agglomeration of biomedicine.
Zhang Peng, vice president and chief operating officer of Kangfang Bio, shares the same view. He believes that the opportunity for the biomedical industry in Zhongshan lies in the clustering of more innovative companies. In this process, it is most crucial to utilize the advantages of policy, location and supporting facilities to realize the agglomeration of innovative resources.
This view is also recognized by Wu Fan, co-founder and vice president of Kangsheng Bio. He believes that from the volume, scale and innovation capacity, Zhongshan can not be compared with Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen and other cities on the east bank of the Pearl River, but Zhongshan can start from the introduction of high-growth enterprises to gather the health of the pharmaceutical industry upstream and downstream industries, so as to start the "potential".
Zhang Peng believes that Jiangsu and Shanghai biomedical development model can provide experience to Zhongshan, is to rely on the first-tier city's innovation resources, the introduction of a large number of high-growth innovative enterprises, whose most important feature is that there are very many innovative enterprises, the scale is not large, but the high technological content, rapid growth, strong potential. "If these kinds of enterprises spring up in Zhongshan, the innovative atmosphere will be basically cultivated, and more and more elements will gather here."
Kangfang Bio itself is a typical innovative enterprise, where several people with ****same idea*** started the same business, utilized their own advantages and technical background to go for internationalization, and gained rapid growth after A and B rounds of financing. The company in just a few years among the domestic rankings of the top innovative biopharmaceutical companies, Zhang Peng that there are several aspects are more important factors, first of all, "to be someone": several entrepreneurial backbone have a relatively rich experience in the international cutting-edge technology, R & D trends, industry dynamics are very well understood, research and development, management personnel have, we have a *** with the same idea, we have a *** with the same idea. We have a *** with the same goal, it is easy to do up. The second is the "project", we have been involved in Europe and the United States in the R & D and management of a number of large international pharmaceutical companies, there is a precise grasp of the market, the choice of the starting point is also relatively high, is to adhere to do innovative biopharmaceutical companies.
From the experience of Hong Kong, Macao, Guangzhou and Shenzhen in the development of biopharmaceuticals, university resources is a very big dependence, in the end, or talent, talent not only can bring technological updates, and ultimately can also bring industrial updates. For the government, the policy dividend is not only financial support this way, give space, give preferential treatment, good planning, improve the supporting facilities, choose a good project, etc., is also very important. The development of the biomedical industry needs a clear positioning in the industrial planning process targeted policies to introduce quality projects, support the development of innovative enterprises with potential. In this way, after the atmosphere of innovation is thick, the soil of innovation will also be precipitated, providing nutrients for industrial agglomeration.