Li Zhijun

I. The Basic Condition of Biological Industry Development

1. Biological industry development has good human resource and scientific research foundation

China has a top-ranking biotechnology research force and Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Changchun and Shenzhen, etc. are important areas rich in relevant human resources. For example, in Beijing there are "four academies and four universities" (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, Academy of Military Medical Sciences, China Academy of Traditional Medicine Science, Peking University, Tsinghua University, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, China Agricultural University) and 16 national key laboratories in the life science domain which account for 41% of the total life science domain; and over 1/3 of annual outlay of national key projects such as the "863" project is spent in Beijing.

Since reform and opening up, more than 320 thousand people have been sent to study abroad, 60% of them have been undertaking biological and medical research. Currently many of them have gained rich academic knowledge and come back to China to start their career. According to statistics, 57% of the theses carried in the world-famous medicine magazines such as Biochemistry, Cell and Science, etc are either written by Chinese or jointly written by Chinese and foreigners.

Currently a lot of biotechnology research results have applied for patent or entered clinical stage or are in the early stage of full production and they have comparatively good industrialization prospects.

2. Biological industry development is starting to expand

Since the 1950s, biotechnology has been widely applied to such fields as agriculture, food industry, pharmacy, sanitation, chemical industry, environmental protection, energy sources and ocean development, etc. and it plays a more and more important role in solving key issues such as human food, health, resource, environment, etc. Currently biotechnology is mainly applied to such fields as pharmacy and agriculture and it also has comparatively good development prospects in some enterprises such as the biochemical industry, biological environmental protection and biological energy, etc. Along with multinational bio-pharmaceutical enterprises transferring their scientific research centers to China and a lot of students abroad coming back to the motherland to start businesses, the number of bio-technology firms has increased rapidly in recent years.

In Beijing, biological engineering and the new pharmaceutical industry has seen continuous and rapid development. In 2003, Beijing biological engineering and new pharmaceutical industry realized gross industrial output value of RMB 13.83 billion Yuan and achieved sales income of RMB 13.35 billion Yuan, with an increase of 14.5% over the last year. In Beijing, bio-pharmaceutical industry has experienced a steady development. Currently more than 20 pharmaceutical enterprises have been founded from scratch. Some outstanding enterprises such as Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Co., Ltd, China Bioway Biotech Group Co., Ltd. and Sihuan Bioengineer Co., Ltd. have taken on a very driving development trend.

In Tianjin, more than 60 companies undertake biological pharmacy, diagnostic products, biochemical medicine, stem cell research and production and most of the companies are small and medium-sized enterprises that have been founded recently. Therefore various forms of ownership are present, with the public ownership as the foundation. Genetic medicine has become the main product of Tianjin bio-pharmaceutical industry. Diagnostic products have developed very rapidly. Stem cell research and industrialization of engineering products keep ahead in our country. Biochemical medicine has a comparatively large industrialization scale and biochips have achieved primary conditions for industrialization. In 2003, Tianjin biotechnology industry realized sales income of RMB 11 billion Yuan, accounting for 8.9% of production value of hi-tech industry.

The biological and pharmaceutical industry has become one of the four leading industries in the economic development of Changchun. By the end of 2003, there were 279 pharmaceutical enterprises in Changchun city. Among these there are 91 pharmaceutical producers, of which there are 36 biological enterprises, 23 traditional medicine enterprises and 32 chemical pharmaceutical enterprises.

3. The development of the biological industry has taken an obvious centralization trend

Currently various biomedicine parks or biomedicine industrialization bases are being built up nationwide. The building of the various parks has accelerated the centralization of biomedicine enterprises and attracted a lot of students abroad to come back to China to start their career, and they have played a very important role in accelerating the transformation of bio- technology research results.

In Beijing, a tripod pattern is coming into being, with Zhongguancun Life Science Park as an innovation research base and with Beijing Economic & Technological Development Development Area and Beijng Bioengineering & Pharmacy Industry Base (Daxing Industry Development Zone) as industrialization bases; a primary park innovation system has come into being, with "big institutes and big universities" as its background and with life institute, chip center and protein group center as its main body. Meanwhile a bio-pharmacy industrialization team, with domestic or foreign famous enterprises as its main body, is coming into being and the convergence effect has begun to appear.

Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area has attracted a lot of domestic and foreign famous biotechnology enterprises to settle down in the development area. Tianjin Hualida Biological Engineering Co., Ltd. has founded a biotechnology industry park in the development area; Novo Nordisk Biological Technology Co., Ltd., Novozymes Biological Technology Co., Ltd. and American Diagnostic Products Corporation, DPC (China) have settled down in Tianjin Economic & Technological Development Area. Yuan Longping, an academician and the "Father of crossbred rice", has cooperated with Tianjin and founded national crossbred rice technology center, Tianjin sub-center in the Development Area. Tianjin Economic & Technological Development Area has become a very famous biotechnology industry base in China.

Chuangchun has formed a bio-pharmaceutical enterprise group including many characteristic enterprises such as Chang Sheng Biotechnology Corporation, GenSci Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd., ChangSheng Gene Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Yatai Pharmacy Co., Ltd., Changchun Haiwang Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd, Changchun Sanjiu pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd, Jilin Xiuzheng Pharmaceutical Group Co. Ltd., Changchun Botai pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Genetic Engineering Corporation of Northeast Normal University, with Chuangchun Biological Products Institute as its backbone.

Hi-tech enterprises in Shenzhen mainly concentrate in the hi-tech area, where some industries such as the biological engineering incubation base, etc. have formed a centralization pattern. The enterprises that concentrate in the hi-tech area are mainly bio-pharmaceutical or related companies and backbone enterprises play a boosting role there.

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