Waigaoqiao Group has cooperated with the Shanghai Medical Association to build a comprehensive service platform for the integration of medical industry and medical care in the bonded area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone. This adds to the acceleration of construction of an internationally influential innovation high ground for the biopharmaceutical industry in Pudong and efforts to build a world-class biopharmaceutical industry cluster in the bonded area.
With the joint participation of enterprises, medical institutions, venture capital institutions, and professional service institutions in the biopharmaceutical industry chain, the platform will be committed to promoting the integration of enterprise research and development needs with the clinical resources of medical institutions.
It will also smooth the transformation chain of scientific research and innovation achievements in medical institutions, focusing on problems and needs in the development of the biopharmaceutical field, and providing product registration guidance, rapid product application, information resource matchmaking, roadshow promotion and display, joint consultation and construction mechanism, exchange and training and other service functions, accelerate the cultivation and formation of new productive forces in the biopharmaceutical industry, according to the organizers.
Nine highly functional biopharmaceutical industry projects were signed at the scene, covering the establishment of research and development centers, headquarters, sales centers, production bases … in bonded areas.
These projects marked increasing investment in clinical transformation, product research and development, commercial production, and actively lay out new tracks such as high-end innovative medical equipment, gene editing, and brain computer precision medicine.
It is expected that the investment of the signed project will exceed 1.5 billion yuan (US$207.8 million), providing new impetus for the cultivation and development of new quality productivity in the biopharmaceutical industry in the bonded area.
Huzur Devletsah, newly appointed president and general manager of Lilly China, told Shanghai Daily: “In the past few days, I am pleased to learn that the State Council has introduced new policies to further promote high-level opening up, and to make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment.
“Relying on the free trade zones, including the Shanghai free trade zone, it has opened up new pilot opportunities for foreign-invested enterprises in the field of cell gene therapy.”
Zhao Yugang, deputy director of the bonded area administration, said: “The platform provides an effective way for the matchmaking of medical enterprises and medical service providers to enable the application of effective medicine and medical devices as soon as possible.
“For instance, clinical centers or hospitals in clinical research in the bonded area may have the privilege in the application of nova medicines, including those not registered in China yet.”
At present, the bonded area has 848 biopharmaceutical enterprises, covering the entire industry chain links of research and development, testing, production, warehousing, trade, supply chain management, medical services and clinical trials.
In 2023, the scale of the biopharmaceutical industry in the bonded area reached 306 billion yuan, an increase of 7.3 percent compared to the previous year, accounting for nearly a third of Shanghai’s total.
Among them, the import value of medical instruments and devices reached 41.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.7 percent, accounting for 43 percent of the national imports.
The import value of medicine was 96.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.6 percent, accounting for 26.4 percent of the national imports.
