It was a conference "watched" by the whole world.

The International Biopharma Industry Week Shanghai (IBIWS) concluded recently had been a conference watched by the whole world and one with no turning back since its preparation.

The global biopharmaceutical companies were looking forward to benefiting from the only industry event held offline this year. And what the conference benchmarked secretly was the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference, a top event of the industry that had held 39 sessions. The JP Morgan Healthcare Conference is a must-go event for global leaders of the industry. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, about 100,000 people went to San Francisco for the conference every year, but only 8% of them were admitted. During the conference, surrounding bars and restaurants became temporary meeting venues, and it was difficult to find a hotel room within a radius of 30 kilometers.

How difficult it would be to hold a conference as professional and well-performed as that in Shanghai! What Shanghai needed was strength as well as determination. Under the watchful eye of the whole world, how could the IBIWS make a glorious debut?

Exceeding Expectations

The companies that go to San Francisco every year to participate in the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference are very discerning, because that conference is a far better industry indicator than any other industry fair, and it gives participating companies a much better sense of fulfilment.

For example, the anti-COVID19 drug Molnupiravir drawing global attention was discovered by the CEO of Ridgeback at the San Francisco annual conference held in January last year. Ridgeback reached an agreement with the inventor of the drug in March of the same year and started clinical studies in April before selling its worldwide rights to Merck (MSD). Such a brilliant opportunity is not rare at the annual conference held in the United States.

Therefore, the IBIWS faced unbelievable pressure for having to benchmark the world's top industry fair in the very beginning.

However, Shanghai's biopharma industry proved its strength. From the opening of the event on October 11 to the closure on October 14, more than 20 high-level activities and 152 highly professional forums were held; 35 Chinese academicians, 4 overseas academicians, and 86 representatives from major national-level technological institutions, first-class academic colleges and universities participated in the industry week; Berry Oncology unveiled its world-frontier research achievement of early detection of six highly dangerous cancers with the sensitivity close to 90% in Shanghai; solid agreements were signed for 86 projects with a total investment of 61.3 billion yuan...

"The industry week is a high-level industry event equal to the world's top biopharma industry symposium considered in many dimensions, such as expert resources, capital matching, frontier forecast, and industrial support. Its performance has exceeded participating companies' expectations," commented Chris Lu, President of Laekna Therapeutics.

Accidental but Inevitable

The uncontrollable variable of the pandemic made the IBIWS an accidental event in the particular time; but in terms of the industry's development law, the glorious debut of the industry week in Shanghai is inevitable.

Mark Leung, CEO of JP Morgan China, has long seen the inevitability.

Earlier, many multinational pharmaceutical companies had already had following "complaints" to him: Our bases are in Shanghai, so is the market. Why not move the San Francisco annual conference to Shanghai? Mark Leung can list six reasons for "moving the annual conference to Shanghai" in one go, including the huge healthcare market with rigid demands formed by China's aging society, the high concentration of outstanding Chinese and foreign scientific research talent in Shanghai, the advantages of the "Zhangjiang R&D plus Made in Shanghai" system, and a complete series of supportive policies in Shanghai. Besides, among JP Morgan's partners, more than 70% of the world’s top 20 healthcare institutions have established their China headquarters or R&D bases in Shanghai. In that case, why bother to go to the United States for the annual conference?

Therefore, after the industry week's sponsor Shanghai Economy and Information Technology Commission communicated with JP Morgan, the latter immediately decided to hold the first Shanghai symposium of JP Morgan Healthcare Conference in Shanghai.

"We're just moving with the tides," said Mark Leung.

Any Minute Now

"The biopharma industry requires the gathering of technologies, companies, and capital. All of them are available in Shanghai," said Jiang Hualiang, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Director of the Academic Committee of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica.

Wu Jincheng, Director of the Shanghai Economy and Information Technology Commission, values the development of the industry ecosystem as well as the gathering of various factors. He likened the ecosystem of Shanghai's biopharma industry to a "tropical rainforest", which has integrated all the functions of high-end medical equipment, digital R&D, and innovative vaccines, and has formed a complete layout by incorporating clinical data, product display, innovation acceleration and venture capital, covering the entire life cycle from innovative R&D, clinical transformation and market access to overseas progress.

According to Wu Jincheng, Shanghai has also issued a number of policies to promote the high-quality development of the biopharma industry, such as promoting the facilitation of customs clearance for R&D items and special items, and establishing a "white list" of pilot companies and items of the biopharma industry. At the same time, the new layout of the biopharma industry bases planned with high standards in Shanghai "can truly make land available for good projects, space available for good industries, scenarios available for good applications, talent available for good ideas, and resources available for good teams."

Facing the promising land, companies made their choices with feet. On October 12, Medtronic signed an agreement to build a medical science and technology industry base in the Lin-gang Special Area, which will focus on the R&D and production service of high-end intelligent medical devices; not long ago, AstraZeneca’s global R&D center in Shanghai completed a comprehensive upgrade. AstraZeneca’s global CEO Pascal Soriot defined the upgrade as “an important milestone in the company’s global layout”; during this industry week, Minhang District signed agreements on 10 influential biopharma projects with illumina, Anrui Maibo, BGI, and so on. The investment totals more than 2 billion yuan. Minhang District of Shanghai is determined to become by 2023 a new landmark of the gathering and intelligent integrated development of the biopharma industry, based in the Greater Hongqiao business area, radiating the Yangtze River Delta, and serving the whole country.

A world-class biopharma industry cluster is about to form in Shanghai any minute now, as is known by the entire industry.

Two days before the opening of IBIWS, the organizing committee received a special email sent by Carl June, Member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and Co-founder of CAR T-cell therapy. Mr. June said he had received an invitation to the IBIWS from his old colleague Professor Zhao Yangbing but was sorry that he wouldn't be able to attend the event in person due to the pandemic. Yet he specially recorded a video of speech to make up for the regret.

Professor Zhao Yangbing mentioned by Carl June used to be Mr. June’s Chinese colleague who had worked in the same laboratory of the University of Pennsylvania for more than ten years. A few years ago, Zhao Yangbing returned to China and founded UTC Therapeutics Inc. In the video of speech, Carl June showed a group photo of Zhao Yangbing and the laboratory trainees. He said: "I hope to pay tribute to all the great China-US cooperation programs with this photo."  

(Author: Li Ye, Shanghai Observer)