Since the beginning of the new century, major technological breakthroughs have been made in the field of life sciences. Biotechnology and information technology have gradually become the underlying common technologies that support economic and social development. Biotechnology products and services have accelerated to enter the market at a more affordable price and closer to the market. Thousands of households, the institutional system for the development, utilization and protection of biological resources, biotechnology innovation and application is becoming more and more perfect, and the prelude to the era of biological economy is slowly opening.
Welcome to the Prosperous Development Period of Bio-economy
Bio-economy is based on theories of biology and life science, and is characterized by technological progress and popular application of genes, cells, breeding, and synthetic biology. Formed material production, circulation, exchange and distribution patterns and corresponding institutional arrangements.
Compared with the bio-industry, the bio-economy is a new type of economy formed on the basis of the changes in biotechnology and the formation of the bio-industry, that is, a new institutional arrangement formed on the basis of technological and industrial changes.
Correspondingly, the era of bioeconomy is based on the accelerated integration of biotechnology and information, materials, energy, breeding and other technologies, and is based on high-throughput sequencing, genome editing, bioinformatics analysis, breeding, microbiomics and other technologies. Marked by extensive cross-integration and application, a new system and policy system will be formed around the allocation of biological resources, which will lead to profound changes in human production and life, as well as the economy and society.
Since the beginning of the new century, especially with the spread of the new crown pneumonia epidemic around the world, the public's awareness, acceptance and demand for biotechnology products and services have grown rapidly, and the pace of the bioeconomy era from growth to maturity will be further accelerated.
For example, 10 years ago, the vast majority of pregnant women and patients were still skeptical about the effects of genetic testing on fetal conditions and early detection of cancer. Today, millions of consumers are willing to pay for it.
Five years ago, people were still ignorant about the utility of nucleic acid testing. Today, nucleic acid testing has been widely used in the world and has become the first door to diagnose new coronavirus infection, and the cost and price have also dropped again and again.
Taking factors such as scientific and technological progress, industrial development, and demand growth into consideration, it is expected that around 2030, human society will usher in a period of prosperity and development in the era of bio-economy. In this period, the importance of biotechnology to human society will surpass that of information technology to a certain extent.
Compared with the era of industrial economy, the era of bio-economy puts more emphasis on the harmonious coexistence of man and nature, and highlights that science and technology can promote the high-quality and sustainable development of human beings and the biological world.
Compared with the information economy era, biotechnology is parallel to or even higher than information technology and has become the underlying common technology. Biological resources, data resources, labor, land, energy and other element resources have become valuable resources for human society. In addition, the bioeconomic era is not only about The improvement of production efficiency is also closely related to the transformation of species ontology such as nature and human beings.
Under the background of the information economy era, the gap between developed countries and less developed countries is efficiency, efficiency, and the "digital divide". In the era of biological economy, this gap will be manifested in the pros and cons of species, the attribution of life rights, and the quality of life. The supply level of high and low, food resources and energy, etc., affects natural laws such as "natural selection".
my country has become a big country in biological industry
After more than 10 years of hard work, at the end of the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the output value of my country's biomedicine, bio-manufacturing, bio-breeding, bio-energy, bio-environmental protection, etc. reached nearly 5 trillion yuan, and the main business income of the biology and big health industry exceeded 10 trillion yuan. Yuan has become a veritable bio-industry power in the world.
A number of innovative enterprises in key fields such as medicine, such as Hengrui Medicine and Xinlitai, with a R&D investment intensity of more than 10%, are developing rapidly. The annual sales of single-variety drugs such as apatinib exceed 1 billion yuan.
Several leading companies with sales of more than 10 billion yuan have emerged across the country. Among them, there are many companies with a revenue of 100 billion yuan, such as Shanghai Pharmaceuticals and Jointown, and a large number of companies in the bio-manufacturing field, such as COFCO Group and Fufeng Group, with a revenue of more than 10 billion yuan. Yuan enterprise.
The biological industry has become a new vane for various types of venture capital after the information industry. According to Firestone data, the scale of financing in my country's medical and health sector in 2020 will grow by more than 87% year-on-year, and cases with a scale of over 100 million yuan account for more than half of the annual total.
Driven by the national and local co-ordination and joint efforts to cultivate and develop the bio-industry, a group of bio-industrial clusters with distinctive characteristics, outstanding advantages, dislocation and complementarity, and strong competitiveness are competing to develop, such as strong innovation, integrated development of large and medium-sized enterprises, single product Suzhou bio-pharmaceutical industry cluster with high revenue and abundant reserves of innovative drugs under development, Shanghai bio-industrial cluster with solid scientific facilities, leading open innovation, famous enterprises and varieties, developed biological resources, gathering of professional scientific research institutes, and pharmaceutical development Guangzhou bio-industry cluster with a long history and well-established industry-university-research cooperation, Chengdu bio-industry cluster with integrated development of biotechnology and information technology, and close linkage of industry, academia, research and medical use, with leading enterprises, well-developed soft and hard facilities, strong attractiveness of innovation elements, and latecomers The Wuhan bio-industry cluster with strong advantages has developed into an important force driving the transformation and upgrading of regional industries and supporting the accelerated development of the bio-economy.
Facing major opportunities and severe challenges
On the basis of the development of the bio-industry in the early stage, my country is facing a major opportunity for the development of the bio-economy era.
One is the abundant reserves of biological resources.
my country has a large amount of clinical data necessary for the development of biomedicine. There are as many as 800 tertiary hospitals in the country, with an annual diagnosis and treatment of 3 billion people and will continue to grow.
Biodiversity advantage is unique. As of 2021, China's biological species list has included 115,064 species. The total number of mammals ranks first in the world, birds account for 14% of the world's total species, and reptile species account for 4.5% of the world's total. It is the world's terrestrial waters. It is one of the largest countries in terms of area, with nearly 1,000 species of China's endemic inland fish.
The total number of higher plant species accounts for 8% to 12% of the world, and plant species continue to increase.
The second is the vast market space.
In the field of medicine and health, people's demand for improving the quality of life and health is increasing day by day. With the further expansion of commercial insurance coverage and the expansion of health consumption expenditures by middle and high-income groups, the huge market potential of various high-end and health care drugs will be further released.
The third is a strong talent pool.
The scale of the supply of talents in medicine, pharmacy, chemistry, physics, biology and other disciplines closely related to the development of the bio-economy era continues to grow, and the structure is constantly optimized, continuously supplying various talents for the development of the bio-economy.
At the same time, domestic industry, academia and research circles have maintained long-term contacts and cooperation with overseas enterprises and technical experts in various forms, which have also provided important support for the growth of talents required for the development of my country's bio-economy.
The fourth is the unique new national system advantage.
Judging from the series of deployment measures my country has taken in response to the new crown pneumonia epidemic in the past two years, the advantages of the new national system in rapidly gathering resources from all parties to respond to major public health emergencies in the short term are remarkable.
In the post-epidemic era, it is expected that the frequency, uncertainty and complexity of major public health emergencies will increase. my country's systematic response mechanism based on previous experience is conducive to leveraging its unique institutional advantages to navigate the development of the global bio-economy era.
The opportunities are unprecedented, and the challenges are also very severe.
Three aspects are highlighted.
First, the institutional system is not perfect.
The top-level design of the national-level bio-economy development strategy for the medium and long term needs to be introduced urgently. The planning, organization and implementation of strong and cross-departmental special actions are not suitable for the complex and changeable situation of the bio-economy era, and a stable, long-term and efficient legal and policy guarantee environment Still to be perfected.
Second, technological innovation reserves are not solid.
Similar to the situation in the information economy era, the development level of my country's life sciences and biotechnology is still far behind that of developed countries. The pioneering and subversive innovation achievements of the bio-industry do not match the vision of a powerful country in the bio-economy, and the industrial chain and supply chain " The problem of "stuck neck" is more prominent.
Third, the biological resources protection, development and utilization system is not perfect.
At present, a large number of biological resources, samples and data with Chinese characteristics in my country have not been fully excavated and protected, and the scientific and technological infrastructure under construction or established has not yet formed a resource data sharing system for unified management and data exchange, and unique biological resources and data. The advantages have not yet been fully exploited.
Raising the global innovation landscape
The accelerated arrival of the bio-economy era has formed a major historic intersection with my country's new journey to achieve the second centenary goal. It requires us to overcome difficulties with unprecedented courage, and turn resource advantages and market advantages into the reality of the vigorous development of bio-economy. Advantages, enhance the awareness of innovation and transcendence, adhere to innovation-driven, give full play to the advantages of domestic demand, strengthen the matching of supply and demand, and strive to occupy a favorable position in the global innovation resource map reconstructed in the bio-economy era.
The first is to clarify the main direction and breakthrough of innovation based on demand.
The key direction of bioeconomy development should be based on the relatively complete and solid foundation of biomedicine, biobreeding, biomanufacturing, bioenvironmental protection, biotechnology services, etc. The goal of building a bio-economy powerhouse is to focus on the development of medicine and health for people's life and health, the field of bio-agriculture for agricultural modernization, the field of environmentally friendly sustainable utilization of biological resources and the field of biosecurity to ensure national security.
The second is to concentrate on overcoming difficulties.
The prosperity and sustainable development of the bio-economy urgently needs a solid scientific foundation.
It is necessary to face the world's cutting-edge technology in the field of life sciences, increase investment in basic and applied research in life sciences, and continue to promote industry-university-research cooperation in research and development with new mechanisms and new models.
Focusing on the frontier direction of world science and technology in the field of life sciences, support the development of a number of major innovation platforms and infrastructures, innovate capital investment methods and operation management models, and introduce hospitals, enterprises, third-party testing institutions, etc. in multiple ways and through multiple channels during the operation of platform facilities. Participate in test feedback.
Closely meet the urgent requirements of the implementation of the Healthy China strategy, especially in the face of the "stuck neck" problem that restricts the application and promotion of biotechnology, and accelerate the deployment and promotion of a number of new biotechnology research plans.
The third is to continuously strengthen the national strategic scientific and technological strength for life and health.
Accelerate the innovation of organizational models and coordination mechanisms, and mobilize multiple subjects and multiple forms to participate in the deployment of national strategic scientific and technological forces for life and health.
Actively attract innovative enterprises to participate in different stages of major technological breakthroughs, such as "unveiling the list", "pulling the list", "revealing the list" and "taking the lead".
Ensure that life and health science and technology innovation facilities are wider and deeper to benefit the people, and accelerate the promotion of hard facilities such as state key laboratories, engineering research centers, and large-scale scientific facilities to enterprises, private capital, scientific research institutions, entrepreneurial teams, new R&D institutions and other social publics open.
Fourth, continue to stimulate the vitality and innovation of biotechnology enterprises.
Whether my country's biotechnology enterprises can accurately grasp the market, especially the domestic super-large market demand, is the key to the realization of profitability and sustainable development of innovative enterprises in the field of bio-economy. The king of sex and risk surges.
Innovative enterprises should continue to take advantage of being closer to demand than scientific research institutions and closer to the domestic market than their foreign counterparts, and actively tap the potential of domestic demand at the "no-man's-land" level for industry segments.
Further improve the policy environment that encourages consumers to "try early" and "affordable" innovative products and services, promote the improvement of production access, pricing, quality supervision, supporting services, and public opinion guidance for innovative products and services, and accelerate the formation of innovative products and services. The benign interaction mechanism of "innovative enterprise profit-consumer pays-enterprise re-innovation".
Fifth, play the role of government procurement in leveraging the market.
Judging from the experience of some regions with relatively well-developed bio-economy such as Shenzhen and Suzhou, local governments have played a significant role in driving the development of new technologies, new products and services in the bio-economy field through government procurement.
For example, some cities have included items such as prenatal genetic testing and screening into the scope of local medical insurance, which has greatly boosted the development of the local and domestic genetic testing industry; some cities have qualified enterprises and institutions to actively increase early cancer screening in employee physical examination activities. Testing projects to escort the sustainable development of innovative enterprises.
In the future, it is necessary to encourage qualified and potential regions to implement more government application demonstration projects of biological products and services. It is also necessary to actively promote the relevant experience and practices of the region, and implement various types of biotechnology projects that benefit the people. Promoting development and driving the big market with the small market.
Sixth, take multiple measures to encourage scientific consumption on the demand side.
Unlike information technology, which has more to do with improving production and living efficiency and changing production and living patterns, the application of biotechnology involves too much transformation of organisms, including humans, and its ethical characteristics and safety are more likely to be questioned by the public.
Therefore, in order to increase the public's awareness and acceptance of biotechnology products and services, it is necessary to take biotechnology as an emerging technology, create a relatively relaxed environment, increase publicity efforts on the consumer side, and establish a sound system in advance. Dispute resolution and decision-making mechanism for major issues involving ethics and safety bottom lines.
In addition, aiming at improving the cost-effectiveness of biotech products and services, improving the quality of new products and services by continuously regulating the product market order and supporting services, and guiding consumers to actively try and purchase various products through appropriate government subsidies and innovative commercial insurance. Biotechnology products and services.
(Source of this article: Economic Daily Author: Written by the Research Group of the Institute of Industrial Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomics: Jiang Jiang)