Zhongguancun Life Science Park Forum spotlights decades of success

The Zhongguancun Life Science Park Development Forum 2020, also known as the Zhongguancun Life Science Park's 20th Anniversary Achievement Exhibition, opened in Beijing on Oct 19.

With a theme of "Data Elements Leading New Opportunities for the Development of Public Health", the forum will run until Oct 25.

The event falls into two parts -- domestic and international activities.

The academic seminar on Multi-omics Research Methods of the Immune System hosted by Science Asia and the Zhongguancun Life Science Park will use online participation and live broadcasts to show how experts and guests from all over the world share views and exchange ideas on infection immune response, cancer, new technology and the autoimmune and regulatory network.

This is the second consecutive year that Science Asia and Zhongguancun Life Science Park have jointly organized international academic seminars, which is a significant step for the park in building its international brand.

Some of the domestic activities to be held offline will include the 2020 Global Medical and Health Big Data Summit being held in the park from Oct 19 to Oct 23, the 14th Five-Year National Forum on Anti-epidemic Frontiers and the Forum of Young Scientists in the Medical and Health Field.

Attendees can also participate in the Roadshow of Biomedicine Pioneer Technologies in the Global Anti-epidemic Background Forum and the Corporate Development Forum, as well as the Cohort Resources Supporting Medical Progress Forum which is also the 2020 Annual Meeting of the China Cohort Consortium, and the 2020 China Research Hospital Summit Forum to be held at the Beijing International Convention Center on Oct 24 and Oct 25.

Nearly a hundred experts and scholars from all over the world, representatives of more than 500 companies in the Life Science Park, and the heads of the China office of Cell, Nature and Science attended the opening ceremony of the main event online or offline.

Zhao Changshan, chairman of Zhongguancun Development Group, remarked that the Zhongguancun Life Science Park is a characteristic park invested by Zhongguancun Development Group. After 20 years of development, a number of talents, technologies, capital, services and other innovative and entrepreneurial elements have gathered in the park, and its incubation, transformation and industrial services have been greatly improved.

Rao Yi, director of the Chinese Institute for Brain Research (Beijing), Shao Feng, academic deputy director of the National Institute of Life Sciences (Beijing), Lu Lin, superintendent of the Peking University Sixth Hospital, and Wang Xijuan, chairman of Beijing Konruns Pharmaceutical Co shared their working experiences in the park.

Rao Yi mentioned that after 20 years of development, Zhongguancun Life Science Park stands at the forefront of the country. Many institutions in the park have cultivated a new generation of life science researchers and practitioners, and produced a large number of high-quality graduate students and post-doctoral specialists.

In the past two decades, Zhongguancun Life Science Park has led the reform of China's science and technology system as well as its modern biotechnology industry. In the next 30 years, it is hoped that the park can lead the world's life science development, Shao said.

Shao Feng joined NILS in 2005 and witnessed the development of the Institute and the Life Science Park.

He said that the park has created an atmosphere of diversity, tolerance and encouragement to promote the continuous advancement of scientific research and transformation.

At present, technological innovation is promoted to an unprecedented height, which coincides with the listing of the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

In the future, NILS will also promote the transformation and application of research results, making more contributions to China's biomedical industry, Shao emphasized.

Lu Lin remarked that after 20 years of development, China's Zhongguancun Life Science Park has become a first-class and world-renowned high-tech park.

The park now accommodates more than 500 research institutions and enterprises in the field of life and health, forming a biomedical industry chain of research, testing, pilot projects and transformation.

The Peking University Sixth Hospital will use its advantages in psychiatry and neuroscience to conduct comprehensive and multi-level cooperation with the Zhongguancun Life Science Park in brain science, neuroscience and mental health, Lu mentioned.

Wang Xijuan remarked that since settling in the park in 2014, Konruns Pharmaceuticals has formed an innovative drug layout with two products entering clinical trials and six products under development. It has already established a complete R&D system.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of operation of the Zhongguancun Life Science Park.

In the past 20 years, Zhongguancun Life Science Park has attracted a number of well-known scientific research institutions and biomedical companies from at home and abroad, including the National Institute of Biological Sciences, the National Center for Protein Science, CapitalBio Technology, BeiGene, InnoCare, Wantai BioPharm and Berry Genomics.

A complete industrial chain of biomedical systems with basic research as the core, from R&D, pilot trials and production to clinical applications has been established.

Looking back, Zhongguancun Life Science Park summed up 20 years of experience in a documentary "Chinese Life Science Pioneers" and two new books "Adaptive Innovation" and "Starting from Zero", which were released at the opening ceremony.

Relying on location and first-mover advantages as well as strategic leadership and unique cultivation, Zhongguancun Life Science Park has attracted 19 academicians of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, including Wang Xiaodong, Shi Yigong, Cheng Jing and Shao Feng, and nearly 200 professionals in the field of life sciences including Rao Yi, Luo Minmin and Li Wenhui.

As of 2019, the park had eight national key engineering centers and laboratories, five academician workstations, and 16 post-doctoral scientific research workstations; it has gathered 185 high-end talents, among whom 25.37% have obtained a master's degree or above and 633 are returned overseas students.

The accumulation of talents has laid the foundation for the rapid development of the industry.

In 2007, the world's first detection chip for genetic deafness was born here and the new national first-class drug heamocoagulase agkistrodon independently developed by Konruns Pharma broke the 20-year monopoly of multi-component hemostatic drugs in the Chinese market.

Wantai Biotech, which was listed on the A-share market at the beginning of this year, developed the world's first hepatitis E vaccine and the only domestically-made bivalent cervical cancer vaccine approved for marketing in China.

BeiGene announced that Zebutinib became the first anti-cancer drug independently developed by a Chinese company to be approved for marketing in the United States last November. And InnoCare received clinical approval of four new drugs within 5 years.

Not long ago, the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone was formally established. Biology and health were listed as one of the key industries in the Free Trade Zone's Science and Technology Innovation Zone.

Zhongguancun Life Science Park will undertake the important mission of "New Development Momentum" facilitated by science and technology innovation.

It will spearhead dismantling of inveterate bureaucratic barriers, enhance intellectual property protection, perfect competition systems, and stimulate vitality of market players.

Hence we can expect a rapid development of the pharmaceutical and health industry and an acceleration of the construction of a world-leading "Biotech Valley" in Beijing.