Biomedicine bursts with new vitality (the attack road of the "little giant" ②)
Beginning in 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of the People's Republic of China has successively announced the list of three batches of "specialized, special and new" small giant enterprises.
These little giants have outstanding main businesses and have independently innovative hard-core technologies and products. They are a new force for cultivating new kinetic energy for economic growth and boosting the development of the real economy.
Among them, biomedical SMEs have been advancing by leaps and bounds driven by factors such as policies, technology, and talents in recent years. In the new crown pneumonia epidemic, they have bucked the trend and performed brilliantly.
The little giants have not only filled the gaps in the domestic industry and become leaders in subdivisions, but also accelerated the pace of internationalization and actively participated in international market competition, which not only enhanced their own technology and product competitiveness, but also provided more and more opportunities for the global medical and health field. The more "Chinese programs", the more helping to build a community of human health.
Start a business and break the foreign medical monopoly
"I want to do something practical for the country and the people. This is my original intention when I returned to China to start a business." Dai Lizhong, chairman of Shengxiang Biological, recalled.
In 2008, Dai Lizhong gave up the preferential treatment abroad and returned to China to start a business. He founded Shengxiang Bio in his hometown of Hunan, and led the team to enter the biomedical field, and developed an in vitro diagnostic overall solution integrating diagnostic reagents, instruments, and third-party medical testing services.
“Many major diseases can be prevented and treated early through molecular diagnostic technology, but the domestic diagnostic technology was relatively backward, and many medical products depended on imports.” Dai Lizhong mentioned the background of his entrepreneurship, “Take the medical device industry as an example. Giants occupy about 70% of our market, and even account for more than 80% of the market in high-end medical equipment. Some foreign companies monopolize prices, which further raises the cost of medical treatment for ordinary people."
Dai Lizhong hopes to use the biotechnology knowledge and work experience he has learned to make the common people truly affordable and well-used advanced medical testing services.
In the second year of returning to China to start his business, he led the team to launch the first domestically-made high-sensitivity hepatitis nucleic acid detection reagent. The sensitivity was 50-100 times higher than similar products at the time, filling the gap in the industry and realizing the replacement of imported reagents.
Since then, Shengxiang Biological has continued to explore in the field of molecular diagnostics, and has become more and more courageous.
With the same sense of mission, Zhao Bo, a surgeon at Beijing Chaoyang Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University, founded Bo Pfizer Biotechnology Co., Ltd. in 2012 to provide regenerative medicine materials and implantable medical device solutions covering clinical surgery .
Zhao Bo has been engaged in clinical and basic research in abdominal surgery for 15 years. His main areas of diagnosis and treatment are gastric cancer and bowel cancer.
When he was a doctor, he had to perform operations on hundreds of patients every year.
After completing an operation, Zhao Bo was delighted to see the patient gradually recovering.
"However, more than 90% of the biomaterial patches and instruments used for the operation of patients are imported from abroad at a high price, which directly increases the cost of the operation, causing many patients to get into trouble due to the high operation fee." Zhao Bo said In clinical work, his professional acumen made him deeply realize that regenerative repair is the development direction of surgery. It is of great significance to realize the domestic substitution of medical equipment, which can not only reduce the patient’s body pain, but also reduce to a large extent. The psychological burden caused by the high cost.
Just do it!
Where do I start?
Zhao Bo aimed at SIS biomaterials.
According to industry insiders, the material is derived from the submucosal tissue of the pig small intestine and is suitable for the regeneration and repair of human soft tissues. It has the advantages of high biocompatibility, biodegradability and absorbability.
For a long time, the production and preparation process of SIS biological materials have been monopolized by foreign countries.
As early as 2007, Bo Zhao initiated the independent research and development of the material platform by self-financing. After the establishment of Bo Pfizer, he led the team to formally embark on the development and industrialization of SIS biomaterials.
Innovation, leading the future of medical development
In the outpatient hall of Shanghai Dongfang Hospital, diagnosis-guide robots responded promptly to guide patients to seek medical treatment; in the isolation ward, disinfection robots are autonomously moving to disinfect the room in all directions... These medical mobile robots come from Shanghai Titan Robot Co., Ltd.
Timi Robot was founded in Shanghai in 2015. The founder Pan Jing graduated from Shanghai Jiaotong University with a major in control engineering and has rich experience in robotics research and development.
In the field of medical services, Titanium Robots uses 5G, big data, artificial intelligence and other new technologies to focus on the R&D and innovation of medical robots to create a variety of intelligent robot products.
"New technologies are emerging in an endless stream, and what we are concerned about is the future demand." Pan Jing said, "Just like 20 years ago, no one thought that large-screen mobile phones were just needed, but now almost everyone must work hard. Our new technologies and new products To find the future demand points of the entire society."
"For example, the infectious disease ward has high requirements for disinfection and sterilization, and the robot's autonomous movement and automatic working characteristics realize the quantitative management of the disinfection process in the infectious ward." Pan Jing said, "In 2018, we will combine the ward. The world’s first disinfection robot is designed for the special circumstances of the company, which integrates three disinfection methods: ultraviolet rays, ultra-dry mist hydrogen peroxide, and air filtration. It can prevent cross-infection in the ward and also provide protection for medical staff." It is reported, This disinfection robot has been extended to many medical scenarios, such as isolation clinics, fever wards, etc., greatly improving the prevention and control of infections in hospitals, and it has also been widely used in this epidemic.
"Strong innovation capability is a common feature of domestic biomedical companies that have come to the fore in recent years." PwC China Mainland and Hong Kong region pharmaceutical and medical management consulting business partner Xu Jia believes, "If you want to develop into a leading company, you need to have Strong R&D capabilities and diversified pipeline layout capabilities are inseparable from large-scale R&D investment."
Take Shengxiang Biologics as an example, the company has developed a series of core technologies such as high-precision "magnetic bead method", quick and easy "one-step method", general-purpose "automatic unified sample processing", "POCT mobile molecular diagnosis" and other core technologies. A series of molecular diagnostic technology platforms such as quantitative PCR, gene chip, gene sequencing, mobile molecular diagnosis, and biological information.
In the first three quarters of this year, R&D expenditure reached 91.24 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 44.86%.
Shengxiang Biology has also established the Life Science Research Institute to conduct R&D and innovation based on market demand, and appropriately take into account cutting-edge exploration, and increase investment in product development and industrial transformation.
In addition to investing in research and development funds, it is also important to form a research and development team.
It is understood that the R&D personnel in the TIMI robot team account for 70%. They have extensive experience in the development and industrial transformation of medical robot products such as standard setting, registration testing, clinical trials and quality management. They are a professional organization. A complete collaborative innovation team.
"The government's creation of an external environment that encourages technological innovation and product innovation is also very helpful to us." Pan Jing said, "The medical scene has very high requirements for product technology landing, because it is directly related to human life safety and health. Therefore, the Shanghai Pudong New Area government has provided us with a large number of early clinical trials, including support for model demonstration projects, to help companies better polish and promote new projects."
Going to sea, committed to protecting human health
"Pfizer has always had a dream, that is, to promote the Chinese-produced SIS material biological patch products to the world." In February this year, the dream came into reality.
Bo Pfizer into the inguinal hernia biological patch obtained the European Union CE certificate and obtained a passport to enter the European market.
The biological patch retains the natural biological microstructure and growth factors, and can actively induce the regeneration of defective abdominal wall tissue after being implanted in the human body.
Good news was frequent. Three months later, Bo Pfizer won the first European order and formally moved the European market.
In Zhao Bo's mind, the biomedical industry is facing a very good period of opportunity.
On a global scale, the entire industry has a large market.
"Today, Bo Pfizer has become a leader in the field of domestic SIS biomaterials, and has a strength that is higher than that of international brands. We will continue to expand international market sales, so that our products can not only serve Chinese patients, but also serve patients around the world. "
After entering the international market, how to win in the fierce global competition?
Shengxiang Biology responded with its own actual actions.
Soon after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, based on more than 10 years of technical reserves and relatively rich experience, Shengxiang Biological successfully developed the new crown nucleic acid detection reagent in a very short time, and then launched the "minute-level" rapid nucleic acid detection equipment, the new crown mutation detection reagent, Mobile nucleic acid detection vehicle, mobile shelter laboratory, etc.
In June of this year, the epidemic prevention and control situation in Guangzhou was severe, and Shengxiang Biotechnology responded quickly and assisted the "Falcon" laboratory to carry out nucleic acid testing of 12.137 million copies.
Nowadays, Shengxiang's products have gone abroad to serve more than 160 countries and regions around the world. The new crown "Shengxiang Program" has also become the leading program for anti-epidemic nucleic acid testing in Europe, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia.
Dai Lizhong believes that specialized and new enterprises in the biomedical industry must have an international strategy.
The epidemic has further confirmed his views.
"China's medical device industry has contributed to the country's first control of the epidemic, fully demonstrating that we are fully capable not only to replace imports, but also to go international and provide a'Chinese solution'Chinese experience' for protecting human health."
In his view, this change of consciousness will create a very large development space for enterprises in the clinical market.
At present, the internationalization process of Shengxiang Biology has been greatly accelerated.
"We are deepening the international regional strategic layout and formulating a '7+2' model plan, focusing on the seven regions of Europe, America, Latin America, Africa, Southeast Asia, and key countries such as the Philippines and Indonesia. We hope that through localized operations in the region, Deeply expand the business and radiate the surrounding areas." Dai Lizhong described the blueprint for development.
Xu Jia said, “Domestic biomedical companies take the road of internationalization is an active choice after they have confidence in their products. On the international stage, Chinese companies can use technological innovation and product innovation with independent intellectual property rights to provide solutions to global problems. , And further enter the world through technology licensing and overseas business cooperation."
Zhou Shuyun