Chongqing invites experts to develop local biomedical industry

CHONGQING - A team headed by Nobel Laureate K. Barry Sharpless has been brought in to help develop the biomedical industry in Chongqing municipality, according to an agreement signed Tuesday.

The team consisting of six international and domestic experts, such as K.C. Nicolaou and Lee E. Babiss, signed a deal with the management committee of the Liangjiang New Area, an economic development zone in Chongqing.

According to the agreement, the team of experts will help the area create a development plan for the medical and heath industry and put into place support systems for technological evaluation and innovation, technology transfer and investment, and market entry standards and management to enable local companies to compete globally.

The team will also support the development of new medicines suitable for both the Chinese and global markets, thus laying a solid foundation for the local biomedical industry, officials with the management committee said at a press conference held after the agreement was signed Tuesday.

The biomedical industry is one of the strategic industries that the area aims to develop during the 12th Five-year Plan period (2011-2015), and the industry's output value is expected to reach 50 billion yuan ($7.94 billion) by 2015, officials said.

Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, set up in 2010, is China's only inland new area and the country's third sub-provincial new area, following Shanghai Pudong New Area and Tianjin Binhai New Area.