Bioindustry set to fuel regional growth, R&D

Contracts for a total of 13 projects worth 8.4 billion yuan ($1.22 billion) were signed recently at the Chengdu International Biotech Industry Town, an industrial park focusing on bioindustry.

The new projects will give an additional boost to both the local economy and research and development in the region, analysts said.

The projects are mainly in the fields of biomedicine, bioengineering and other healthcare industries.

Once they become operational, the projects are expected to generate total annual revenue of 10 billion yuan.

The town, covering a total area of 44 square kilometers, was set up by the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and Chengdu’s Shuangliu district in March 2016.

The park has been working to establish international cooperation ties with Cuba, the United States and a number of European countries.

A cancer institute named after J. Michael Bishop, a Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine, was set up in the park in late 2016.

It aims to become a world-class comprehensive cancer institute that discovers, develops and produces precise anti-cancer drugs.

Yang Dun, one of Bishop’s students and director of the institute, said it will make full use of its highly-qualified and experienced talents, technology and other resources in the US, Britain, Germany and China to conduct R&D.

“The institute will build a business incubator for the local micro biological enterprises and strengthen cooperation with universities and colleges in southwestern China,” he said.

Another institute, named after K.Barry Sharpless, winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2001, was also set up in the park last year.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center plans to build strategic cooperative relations with biomedicine companies in Chengdu and establish a long-term mechanism to ensure steady technology and personnel exchanges in the field of 3-D bioprinting.

Steven Goodman, vice-chancellor of UTHSC, said the layout and industrial development planning of the Chengdu International Biotech Industry Town were clearly devised with an international perspective, and he looks forward to cooperating with Chengdu.

Goodman made the remarks during his visit to the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone from Feb 22-26, with six other professors from the university. Some 51 projects have signed up to settle in the park, with the investment totaling 60 billion yuan.

It will gather a total of 30,000 companies in the fields of bioindustry by 2035, generating total revenue of 500 billion yuan, according to the plans for the biotech industry town.