BEIJING - Aiming to carve a leading position in China's nascent biotech industry, Beijing has embarked on a project to grow the industry more than two-fold in three years. Dubbed the "G20 Project," the Beijing Leap-forward Development Program for Biopharmaceutical Industry seeks to transform the capital city into China's hub for biotech R&D and manufacturing.

Implemented in April 2010, the plan's first phase calls for scaling up the industry from less than RMB 40 billion in 2010 to RMB 100 billion in 2012. Eventually, Beijing hopes that the biotech industry will account for 5% of its GDP.

To achieve its hefty goals, the G20 project is centered on creating an environment to stimulate industry growth. Such an environment, according to project designers, must include a large-scale platform that meets international standards for clinical research organizations, contract manufacturing, and preclinical and animal testing platforms.

G20 is also focused on supporting biotech enterprises. Beijing city officials are formulating action plans for supporting large-scale and established companies, developing potential innovative firms and attracting multinational companies. It has identified 17 large companies including multinationals such as Bayer Healthcare and Sanofi SA and local company Beijing Tongrentang Pharmaceutical. The list of six selected innovative enterprises includes the Beijing Haiyang Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd..

To spur growth, the Beijing local government plans to expand incentive policies to companies, including venture capital and including made-in-Beijing products in the city's reimbursement list.

Beijing is not alone. Shanghai, Tianjin and provinces such as Jiangsu and Hebei have established similar biotech plans. Inland megacity Chongqing plans to invest RMB 100 million in three years to establish its biopharma industry.

Beijing's Advantage

Beijing, however, has few matches in China for an environment conducive to grow its biotech industry, Pan Yue, deputy director of the Beijing Pharma and Biotech Center told PharmAsia News. BPBC is a key player in supporting the industry in Beijing by linking resources through the government, academia and industry.

Established in 1996, BPBC is the first service provider and promotional organization for the budding biotech industry. Fifteen years ago, Beijing's biotech industry was valued at RMB 4 billion, and is estimated to grow to RMB 56 billion in 2011 and RMB100 billion in 2012.

Pan said BPBC's network of 2,000 experts puts Beijing ahead of the curve among similar programs in China. Using its network, BPBC can contribute to policy research as well as coordinate among drug regulators, economic development agencies and science park administrators on behalf of the industry. In 2005, the Beijing-based Alliance of Bio-Box Outsourcing, China (ABO Alliance) was established to encourage innovation and international standardization.

BPBC provides initial policy consultations to companies free of charge and the Beijing city government foots the bill. Eventually, the center will provide fee-based services ranging from site selection and talent recruitment to opening ceremony planning. The center hopes that its brand of "Beijing biotech" will be known inside the industry both domestically and internationally.

"We aim to become a Chinese issue expert for foreign multinational corporations and an industry expert voice for the government, something like a think tank for the bio industry in the next five years," Pan said.

Both MNCs And Specialty Firms

After the 2008 Olympics, Beijing started a restructuring effort to improve industry infrastructure and shift resources to core growth areas.

Since then, Beijing has established two bio industry bases: Changping Life Science Park in the north and Daxing Life Science Park in the south. The parks are designed to accommodate R&D and manufacturing. The Daxing Park, near the new Beijing airport, covers an area of 10 square kilometers and forms the basis for the Bio Valley.

In terms of tenants, Beijing's blueprint is to attract both multinationals and specialty firms. The city has already attracted global players such as Bayer, Sanofi and Novo Nordisk AS.

Sanofi, for instance, invested $44 million to launch a manufacturing base for its best-selling diabetes drug Lantus (insulin glargine) in Beijing. The company released second quarter results showing sales in China reached €230 million, an increase of 41.4%, driven by strong sales of Plavix (clopidogrel) and Lantus (Emerging Markets Sanofi's 'Most Important' Segment; Merck Looks To 'Win' China: Emerging Markets Earnings Round Up (Part 1) PharmAsia News August 8, 2011).

And Novo Nordisk plans to invest $100 million over the next five years to expand its Beijing R&D center, located in the Zhongguancun Life Science Park. Novo, which leads the insulin market in China, recently obtained Chinese approval for its once-daily GLP-1 analog Victoza (liraglutide) and plans to double its staff to 200 before 2015 (Also see "Novo Ramps Up In China, Roche Downplays Branded Generics, GSK Talks Up Japan While Hitting "The Inflection Point": Emerging Markets Round Up (Part 2)" - Scrip, 11 August, 2011.).

As long as a specialty biotech fits Beijing's development strategy, it will be supported by the capital city, Pan said. One such example is oncology start-up BeiGene Ltd., co-founded by well-known leaders among the China pharmaceutical industry, and endorsed by an equity financing from Merck & Co. (Also see "Merck Invests In China Oncology Start-up BeiGene" - Scrip, 2 May, 2011.).

"If you're looking for great innovative biology in China, it's clustered in Beijing," BeiGene CEO John Oyler told PharmAsia News in May. Although Shanghai is considered the heart of the China pharma industry, Beijing is what the Bay Area was to the U.S. biotech industry when Amgen started, the CEO claimed.

BeiGene co-founder and Chairman Wang Xiaodong is another veteran in China's biology industry. Wang is the director and architect of the National Institute of Biological Sciences in Beijing.

- Brian Yang (pharmasia@elsevier.com)

Beijing Quietly Charms Both MNCs And Specialty Biotechs In Effort To Establish China's Bio Valley

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