Shenzhen Special Zone Daily: World’s top biomedical R&D center under construction

Construction of BeiGene's Guangzhou R&D Center project started in Guangzhou International Bio-Island in early March.

As a global leader in the business and R&D of molecularly targeted drugs and immune-oncology drugs, BeiGene is the only biotech enterprise listed on the NASDAQ and the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong Limited.

The R&D center, located on Bio-Island, is the second R&D center in the world set up by BeiGene and will be completed in 2021.

It will focus on pre-clinical research and clinical development of new drugs, and play an important role in the development of innovative drugs and therapies. It will also lead and coordinate the clinical development of BeiGene in Guangdong and even in South China.

Wang Xiaodong, co-founder of BeiGene, said that in early stages of the project, BeiGene has truly experienced high-quality government services in Guangzhou, and is confident that Bio-Island will be an internationally first-class biotech research base.

The BeiGene project accords with Biological Island's own target: to become a Bioscience Cooperation Zone between the Bio-Island and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the world's top biomedical R&D center.

Similar decisions were made by a large number of enterprises and institutions. Guangzhou International Bio-Island has introduced projects from the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, one of the ten most influential research institutes in the world, the Thermo Fisher Precision Medicine Science Center, the South China Headquarters of Luye Life Sciences Group, the largest stem cell preparation center in the country, and the South China Entry-Exit Public Service Platform for Biomaterials.

As one of the earliest medical institutions offering comprehensive testing services for patients with rare diseases in China, and one of the early enterprises in Bio-Island, Kingmed can provide more than 2,600 testing items by integrating international and independent innovation and achievement transformation.

Liang Yaoming, chairman and chief executive of Kingmed, said that there were only five or six companies when Kingmed settled in the Bio-Island, but now there is an industrial cluster housing nearly 200firms.

Originally named "Guanzhou Island", Bio-Island is a small island in the Pearl River. It covers about 1.83 square kilometers.

In 1999, the Guangzhou Municipal Party Committee and the Guangzhou Municipal Government proposed to build it into an international research and production base of biotechnology; in 2006 and 2007, it was named a Guangzhou National Bio-industrial Base by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Guangzhou Municipal Government.

In July 2011, it was officially opened for operation; in 2016, it won the title of National Science and Technology Business Incubator; it was awarded the Best Biomedical Park Award in China in April 2018; and it was listed by the Guangzhou Municipal Government as one of the top 10 most valuable innovation parks in June 2018.

At present, Bio-Island has accumulated fixed assets investment of 10 billion yuan($1.5 billion), gathered more than 170 biomedical enterprises of various types, cultivated or introduced 42 high-level talents, and formed clusters in five fields, namely, drug research and development, stem cell and regenerative medicine, precision medicine, medical devices, and comprehensive health management consultation.

The Guangzhou Regenerative Medicine and Health Guangdong Laboratory, the Biomedical Research Center of South China, the Human Tissue and Organ Transplantation Center and the Medical Big Data Center of the National Health Commission, and other major science and technology platforms have been established, while numerous international exchange and cooperation platforms have been set up between China and Israel, Europe, the United Kingdom, the United States, and other countries.

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