On March 7, the wholly-owned subsidy of BeiGene, Ltd. - BeiGene (Hong Kong) Co. Ltd. (BeiGene Hong Kong) and Guangzhou Development District (GDD) and its affiliated enterprise Guangzhou GET Holding Co. Ltd. (GET) signed the final agreement to establish BeiGene Biopharm Co. Ltd., and a biomedicine production base with international advanced level and commercialization scale in Guangzhou. This project will start construction within this year and the investment is estimated to reach RMB2.2 billion (equivalent to US$330 million).

 

BeiGene was listed on NASDAQ last year. As the first innovative biomedicine enterprise of China listed in the USA stock market, BeiGene’s total market value reached several hundreds millions US dollars on the first day of IPO. Many experts compare BeiGene to China’s Genentech and acclaim its outstanding innovation capability.

 

From R&D to industrialization, BeiGene has found a foothold in Guangzhou. Dr. Wang Xiaodong, co-founder, director and chairman of the Science Advisory Board of BeiGene, said that the macromolecular bio-medicine production capacity is an important part of BeiGene’s comprehensive development and production efforts, and the joint venture in Guangzhou will enable BeiGene to catch up with the growing demand on the bio-medicine development and application in the Chinese and global markets.

 

Investing heavily in establishing the anti-cancer drug production base

 

The BeiGene Project will cover an area of 100,000 square meters, and the total direct investment is estimated to RMB2.2 billion. It will start construction within the year. According to the related director of the government affairs division of BeiGene, the bio-medicine production base the company invested in GDD will center on production of the macromolecular monoclonal antibody anticancer drugs.

 

Dr. Wang said the macromolecular bio-medicine production capacity is an important part of BeiGene’s comprehensive development and production efforts. “The joint venture in Guangzhou will enable BeiGene to catch up with the growing demand on the bio-medicine development and application in the Chinese and global markets.”

 

According to the public information, BeiGene is a global R&D-based biotechnology company. It was established in 2011 and listed on NASDAQ in February 2016. It is China’s first innovative biomedicine enterprise listed in the USA stock market.

 

Since established, BeiGene has focus on development and promotion of targeted and immune tumor treatment, and is one of the few enterprises really engaging in independent research and development of new drugs. At present, BeiGene has developed several anti-tumor products that have entered the clinical research stage. The second generation BRAF inhibitor BGB283 and PARP inhibitor BGB-290 have won good graces of the multinational pharmaceutical giant Merck and both parties signed two overseas cooperation development and sales agreements in 2013.

 

“We predict in the Chinese and global markets, the biomedicine will enjoy a promising prospect. Under this historical opportunity, building the high-quality large-scale manufacturing capacity is our strategic focus.” John Oyler, co-founder and CEO of BeiGene, believed the joint venture with GDD will be a valuable property of BeiGene for the long-term development.

 

Biomedicine cluster attracts major projects

 

This time BeiGene was referred to GDD by a large enterprise at the very beginning, said a director of the government affairs division of BeiGene. “But what made us to finally determine to invest in Guangzhou is the high importance GDD has attached to the biomedicine industry, and the industrial clusters here.”

 

In GDD, scientists of RiboBio Co. employed the gene silencing technology to develop various kinds of R&D products and nucleic acid drugs to make the oncogene to “silence” and “sleep” so as to carve out a new way of curing cancer. At present the company has occupied 80% of the domestic market.

 

Guanhao Biotech which is located in Guangzhou Science City too has spent more than 10 years and independently developed the “industrialization of the biological type Pachymeninx patch and biological patch”, breaking the monopoly of foreign imported products.

 

There are many enterprises like RiboBio and Guanhao Biotech in Huangpu District and GDD. As a national bioindustry base of Guangzhou, this district has attracted a batch of leading enterprises in the biomedicine industry, and formed the bio-medicine industrial system with health food, medical device and modern TCM as the leading force and precision medicine and regenerative medicine and other dominant industries as the new powerhouse, and become the pilot of the individual medicine and biomedicine innovation industrial cluster of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

 

The data shows that in 2015 Guangzhou enjoyed rapid development of the biomedicine industry. GDD alone has attracted about 530 biomedicine enterprises, and 105 of them are high-tech enterprises. And the total revenue of enterprises above statistics threshold in GDD reached RMB47.4 billion, eight enterprises generated the output value of more than RMB1 billion respectively, and the output value of 30 enterprises exceeded RMB100 million. GDD is also home to 17 listed enterprises. A batch of high-quality R&D institutes in the bio-medicine field, including Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, South China Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research Center of the Academy of Military Sciences, the South China Center for Innovative Pharmaceuticals, have settled in Guangzhou.

 

The settlement of the important biomedicine projects such as BeiGene has further increased the attraction and influence of the biomedicine industrial clusters of Guangzhou. On the day when BeiGene and GDD signed the agreement, many biomedicine enterprises have been attracted and put forward the intention of settling in Guangzhou.

 

Will the settlement of a “capable general” spark the flames of innovation?

 

“It is really a good news for BeiGene to settle in Guangzhou and the biomedicine industry will have another capable general of innovation,” said Dr. Li Shengfeng, general manager of Bio-Thera Science and Technology Co. Ltd., excitedly.

 

BeiGene is a global R&D-based bio-tech company and has a global team of more than 300 scientists, clinical medical scientists and employees in the Chinese mainland, the USA, Australia and Taiwan. It made the IPO on NASQAD last year. As China’s first innovative biomedicine enterprise listed in the USA stock market, its total market value on the first day of IPO reached several hundreds of million US dollars. What’s secret for BeiGene to win good graces from investors without products sold on the market? The related director of the government affairs division of BeiGene said, “At present our R&D projects are world leading technology.” In the several years since its establishment, the enterprise has developed 10 experimental drugs (all are innovative brand-name drugs) and three of them have entered the clinical test stage, and the drugs under development cover more than 80% of cancers. It boasts the outstanding anti-cancer drug R&D capacity of the international level.

 

“Innovative R&D capability is the core competitiveness of BeiGene,” said an insider of the biomedicine industry of Guangzhou. It is rare in the domestic enterprises of China to develop the brand name drugs and pass the certification of the USA FDA. BeiGene boasts “a high starting point, high R&D strategy and high internationalization level” which are the important reasons for the enterprise to be touted. Hillhouse Capital has a very high evaluation to BeiGene and believed “BeiGene is a biotech company with a very strong innovation capability.”

 

According to Dr. Li Shengfeng, BeiGene has made excellent achievements in the promotion of targeted and immune cancer treatment and has been touted in the capital market of the USA. Its settlement in Guangzhou will definitely enhance the innovation capability of the biomedicine industrial clusters.

 

He said biomedicine is an industry with a very long cycle and needs heavy R&D input to realize industrialization. With 10 years of development Bio-thera will bring two products to the market in this year and next year. In order to realize the goal of industrialization, the company is accelerating construction of the antibody GMP workshop of more than 40,000 square meters that meet EMA, FDA and CFDA standards.  

 

“Whether BeiGene can form an industrial chain and spark the flames of innovation depends on its industrialization speed and capability,” said Li Shengfeng. In consideration of BeiGene’s strong talent and technological bases and the experiences in cooperation with Merck, it enjoys a promising prospect to cooperate with neighboring pharmaceuticals in innovation in future, said Li Shengfeng.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, March 8, 2017