Recently, two pieces of news on bio-medicine become hot in Guangzhou. First, Jules A. Hoffmann, the winner of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, academician of the French Academy of Sciences and honorable director of Sino-French Hoffmann Institute, led a delegation to visit Guangzhou. Second, the US-listed BeiGene settled down in Guangzhou Development District (GDD) and the project will start construction within this year and the investment is estimated to reach 2.2 billion yuan.

 

According to media statistics, over the past year, five Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine visited Guangzhou, and world-class bio-medicine enterprises also launched in the city. All these indicate a fact: Guangzhou makes a sudden rise in bio-medicine and is looking for its position in the global bio-medicine arena. “Guangzhou’s bio-medicine development is entering an exciting period. In bio-medicine research, China is undoubtedly involving into global collaboration. In Guangzhou, I saw a bio-medicine ‘corps’ which is sufficient to make greater-scale gene research on behalf of China concerning of its cutting-edge technical level and research fields,” said the Nobel laureate Dr. Craig Cameron Mello.

Data also indicate that by the end of 2016, GDD alone is home to over 530 bio-medicine enterprises, with the production value of enterprises above statistics threshold of over 40 billion yuan. According to estimation, Guangzhou’s bio-medicine and health industry will hopefully reach the level of a trillion yuan by 2025 and become the biggest pillar to Guangzhou’s economic and social development.

The following factors are worthwhile to mention for the sudden rise of Guangzhou’s bio-medicine industry. First, as one of Guangzhou’s strategic emerging industries, biological and health industry has been the supportive focuses of the municipal government. In recent years, Guangzhou has invested over 500 million yuan from budgetary funds into biological and health industry. It also issued lots preferential policies to help bio-medicine enterprises grow rapidly. Second, as a medical center in South China, Guangzhou is home to a number of big enterprises and hospitals. For example, Guangzhou Phar. Holdings is the leader of Guangzhou’s bio-medicine and health industry and the large-scale backbone enterprise with provincial and municipal supports. Everyday, KingMed Diagnostics offers medical test and pathological diagnostics outsourcing services for more than 16,000 medical institutions nationwide, covering the regions with 98% of Chinese population. Third, Guangzhou boasts abundant university resources and numerous research institutions. Guangzhou, as the education center in South China, is home to many universities and scientific research institutions engaged in quite a few national key researches on respiratory, ophthalmological and contagious diseases etc. Moreover, it has state key laboratories for respiratory diseases and oncology in South China.

Bio-medicine is a high-tech industry with high intensity of technologies. Guangzhou’s historic breakthroughs in the sophisticated cutting-edge industry bring us pleasure and consideration. Can Guangzhou’s bio-medicine development path be copied? Or be embedded into other high-tech industries to achieve an overall takeoff? In terms of conditions, quite a few high-tech industries also boast takeoff conditions, such as governmental policy support, institutes’ talent preparation and convenient financing via financial institutions. As long as measures are carried out properly, Guangzhou’s emerging industries will present a new development look.

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, Mar. 10, 2017