To complete the Pan-Pearl River Delta Regional Health Cooperation and Development Research Report, a group of reporters from Southcn.com visited Tianfu Life Science Park at the end of this July for in-depth research. The following is the full report of their visit:

Walking into Chengdu Frontier Medical Center in Chengdu Tianfu Life Science Park, a newly completed biomedical industrial park which was just washed by summer showers, a visitor can see its modern architectural style and the vitality and vigor of biomedical companies settled in the Park.

 

Tianfu Life Science Park (Phase I)

 

Two park areas have been built in Tianfu Life Science Park, of which, Phase I of Tianfu Life Science Park is positioned as a biomedicine R&D innovation center and an industrial incubation center focusing on biomedicine, chemical medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, medical equipment, biomedical engineering, and supporting institutions that provide professional services to attract projects.

 

Aerial View of Phase II of Tianfu Life Science Park

 

Phase II is positioned as a new polar core and source of innovative development of Chengdu frontier medicine, focusing on attracting frontier medicine, precision medicine, smart health and medical cosmetology projects, etc.

At present, Tianfu Life Science Park is home to well-known domestic and foreign companies or institutions represented by West China Hospital, Hengrui Pharmaceutical, ChemPartner, and Gooddoctor Pharmaceutical, as well as 183 innovative and entrepreneurial companies represented by Xiling Lab, Antejin, MaxHealth, and Geneus Technology. It has incubated many outstanding enterprises such as Chengdu HitGen and Hinova Pharmaceutical and introduced more than 400 international and domestic first-class projects, of which more than 50 Class I new drug projects are in development.

"If they wish, entrepreneurs only need to bring with them a backpack, and the Park can provide full services for them."

As said by Wan Xiang, Deputy General Manager of CDHT Investment Group Biomedicine Industrial Park Management Co., Ltd., the operation and management company of Tianfu Life Science Park. According to him, the pre-service is the biggest characteristic of the Park. Before entrepreneurs decide to settle down in the Park, the park service team has already begun to conduct entrepreneurial review and guidance to help them become fully aware of what they are expecting.

Tianfu Life Science Park's "full-lifecycle" targeted service covers 21 items in six categories including entrepreneurial guidance, public technology platform, safety and environmental protection, human resources, brand planning and promotion, and logistics support to biomedical companies and entrepreneurial teams. Enterprises can enjoy incubation services provided by the Park before, during and after their settlement in the Park.

 

A Research Team Visiting a Company in the Park

 

In Phase II of Tianfu Life Science Park, many companies have moved in with office set up. For example, Chengdu Yuanzhong Beike, which provides professional cell resource storage, has successfully moved in. Its Phase I "Cell Bank" project can provide professional services to 30,000 citizens every year.

Talent is the primary resource and core element of enterprise development, therefore, talent recruitment is the core need of enterprises settled in the Park.

To this end, Tianfu Life Science Park has created a well-known talent recruitment brand, namely Tianfu Life Science Park BioTalent recruitment.

In response to the shortage of talents in the biomedical industry, uneven regional distribution of talents, high demands from enterprises, and difficulties of enterprises with recruitment, the Park organized biomedical companies in Chengdu High-tech Industrial Development Zone to carry out special recruitment. Since its launch, BioTalent recruitment has served more than 400 companies (times) and attracted more than 40,000 effective participants online and offline.

Chengdu has accelerated the construction of a city that is a comprehensive embodiment of the new vision of development and has been deepening its cooperation and exchanges with Sichuan University in recent years. Chengdu Frontier Medical Center in Phase II of Tianfu Life Science Park is a model of university and local government cooperation in Chengdu.

According to the model of "co-construction, co-management, sharing, and co-serving", Chengdu Frontier Medical Center has formed a full industrial chain of "innovative R&D - achievement incubation - industrialization", promoted the transformation of research achievements of Sichuan University, and pioneered the innovative transformation and cooperation model between local government and university in China based on common interests while ensuring that the government investment has a way for recovery.

 

Chengdu Frontier Medical Center

 

Co-construction where the government builds the carrier and Sichuan University introduces its team 

Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone has provided Chengdu Frontier Medical Center with professional standard carriers for biomedicine R&D, such as R&D office buildings, as well as policy support such as basic decoration subsidies. And Sichuan University has introduced a high-level research platform and a high-level research team.

Co-management for coordination of work and joint supervision of projects 

The two parties jointly set up a working group to coordinate and promote the overall management of the Center. They jointly established an academic committee to carry out strategic planning, project selection, team introduction and assessment and evaluation of projects to be settled in Chengdu Frontier Medical Center.

Sharing where achievements are transferred into equity and equity can be swapped into options 

There is the pioneered innovation and transformation cooperation model between local government and university based on common interests in China, where Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone provides financial support for carrier construction, rent and decoration through Frontier Medical Center in exchange for equity upon the confirmation of the transformation of Sichuan University's medical, biological, and pharmaceutical achievements.

Co-servicing for knowledge transformation to product, project transformation to company, and professor transformation to shareholder 

Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Sichuan University provide relay baton-style services in three stages. The first stage is the entrepreneurial stage, where they provide services including entrepreneurial consulting, entrepreneurial mentoring, government services, online project review, safety and environmental review, etc. The second stage is the incubation stage, where they provide policy guidance, brand promotion, public technical service platforms, financial coordination, etc. The third stage is the acceleration stage, where they provide talent service, pre-listing tutoring, etc.

 

Chengdu Frontier Medical Center

 

Tianfu Life Science Park promotes the R&D of new drugs by R&D participants from the hospital and university in the form of equity participation. Chen Lijuan, Deputy Director of the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy of Sichuan University and Chief Scientist of Chengdu Zeling Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd., is one of the beneficiaries.

Today, Chengdu Zeling has been settled in Chengdu Frontier Medical Center, and its R&D in the laboratory is also carried out in full swing.

 

"Tianfu Life Science Park has not much cooperation with provinces in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region," said Wan Xiang frankly. According to him, only some companies in the Pearl River Delta region have set up their sub-centers in the Park, and there is no cooperation at the Park level. Regarding future development, he suggested that a biomedical industry alliance be established in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region.

Wan Xiang mentioned the example of the "Yangtze River Biomedicine Innovation Service Alliance".

From 2016 to 2018, Tianfu Life Science Park joined hands with well-known parks in the Pan-Yangtze River basin, including Shanghai Zhangjiang Pharma Valley and Suzhou BioBay, to launch the Yangtze River Biomedicine Innovation Service Alliance, which has promoted the information exchange and innovation element coordination of parks in the Yangtze River basin and continuously improved the overall competitiveness of the biomedical industry in the Yangtze River basin.

"Is it possible to carry out such a model in the Pan-Pearl River Delta in the future as well?" Wan Xiang suggested.

In addition, he expressed his hope that they could strengthen cooperation with the Pan-Pearl River Delta region in terms of achievement transformation, talent exchange, and project investment in the future.

Reporter's Notes 

Jointly Create Growth Space and Innovative Soil for Biomedical Industry 

The biomedical industry has the characteristics of "high investment, high return, high risk, and long cycle", which requires high investment as a condition for industry entry and sustainable development. The biomedical industry has today entered a stage of intensive cultivation, and a new round of competition has quietly arrived.

Upon research, I have found that the biomedical industry in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region has issues such as uneven development and information asymmetry among regions, which is not conducive to the local industrial aggregation and restricts the coordinated development of different regions. Therefore, I believe that in addition to the cooperation of biomedical companies on their own, it is more necessary for the government to carry out overall coordination and guide the coordinated development of industries of different regions in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region from the top down.

Firstly, to promote the rapid development of the biomedical industry, we must not only attach importance to technical issues, but also lift our horizon to the national strategic level, seize the new opportunities for Pan-Pearl River Delta regional cooperation, and strive to win support for projects and key programs that benefit people at all levels. At the same time, we need to strengthen university-local government cooperation to promote the transformation of research and innovation achievements and use the mature experience of Tianfu Life Science Park for reference to promote the "business partner" model of equity swapping options.

Secondly, we should strengthen the leading role of the government, improve inter-regional interactions, promote industrial cooperation, fully consider the functional positioning and development advantages of different regions, form their complementary advantages, and improve the utilization of various resources.

Finally, we should optimize the allocation and innovation of resources, promote the exchange of information, technology, talents and other resources in the biomedical industry in the Pan-Pearl River Delta region by breaking regional monopolies and barriers, remove institutional barriers that restrict the cross-regional flow of innovative elements, and reduce the cost of innovative element flow.

Source: Southcn.com