Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Center launched

The signing ceremony of the Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Center was held in the Medical Science and Technology Center of Zhongguancun Life Science Park on July 31.

As an innovation and incubation platform jointly established by the Zhongguancun Life Science Park, Tsinghua Industrial Technology Research Institute, and Beijing Hetang Shenghua Medical Technology Co, the Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Center will provide professional services for research institutions and companies conducting R&D and clinical trials of innovative drugs.

At the signing ceremony, Jin Qinxian, deputy secretary-general of Tsinghua University, delivered a speech.

He said that the new cell and gene therapy pilot test platform and biopharmaceutical innovation business incubator will apply synthetic biotechnology to the field of bioengineering services, accelerate the process development and production application of cell and gene therapy, and integrate artificial intelligence, intelligent robots, 5G and the industrial Internet.

The Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Center includes a cell and gene therapy R&D and pilot test platform of 7,000 square meters, and a hard & core technology incubator of 3,000 square meters. The Center complies with the international GMP standards, China's NMPA standards, US FDA standards, and EU EMA standards.

It is expected that by May 2021, the Cell and Gene Therapy Innovation Center will be completed and put into use and will provide innovative drug R&D and clinical trial services for more than 10 cell and gene therapy technology companies.

Xuan Hong, general manager of Zhongguancun Development Group, remarked that in the past ten years, Zhongguancun Development Group has built six business systems: space operations, industrial investment, scientific and technological finance, technology services, regional coordination and international cooperation, and has more than 160 service products, covering the whole process of scientific and technological R&D and transformation to market products.

Zhongguancun Life Science Park has recently focused on cutting-edge fields such as antibody drugs, cell therapy and gene therapy drugs, and protein drugs. It has built multiple common technology service platforms covering the entire R&D cycle (drug molecule discovery, screening, and pilot testing), and will continue to improve innovative services for companies.

After the completion of these platforms, industrialization of achievement transformation and pilot testing will be achieved. It is estimated that dozens of innovative drugs and devices will be developed in the next three years.