An aerial view of the Frontier Medical Center in Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Photo: Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee

Recently, WestVac BioPharma Co, Ltd, located in Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town, Southwest China's Sichuan Province, successfully passed patent examination and obtained authorization from the US Patent and Trademark Office for its self-developed tumor immune preparation, pMVA-1 Lipid Complex for Injection (WSK-IM02). According to reports, this project is mainly aimed at the treatment of advanced ovarian cancer and has successively obtained patent authorizations from China, the US, and Japan, consolidating a leading advantage globally.

Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town was jointly built by the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone and the Shuangliu district. The Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone is an important pillar of the biopharmaceutical industry in Chengdu. With the initial formation of key industrial clusters such as chemical drugs, biological agents, medical devices, and modern Chinese medicine, its industrial advantages are becoming increasingly well-known across China and the world.

Since the beginning of 2023, the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone has focused on key tracks such as innovative drugs and high-end medical devices, and has successively attracted major projects such as the headquarters and international hospital projects of the Fortune Global 500's Fresenius AG in Southwest China, as well as the country's first Fortune Global 500 "Roche Digital PCR Innovation Center," to further expand the scale and raise the level of the biopharmaceutical industry.

Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town Photo: Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Administrative Committee

The $10 billion level project signed by the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone in 2023, the R&D and industrial innovation base of Luye Life Sciences, will invest in the construction of multiple subprojects, including the CDMO platform for complex preparations of Luye Life Sciences and the AIDS interdisciplinary innovation center. Gong Dequan, vice president of the group, said Chengdu has a clear geographical advantage and the project plays an important role in the group's development strategy. It will further promote pharmaceutical links and provide patients with a comprehensive solution covering the entire industry chain of diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation.

In addition, the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone fully utilizes its policy guidance advantages, activates the capital market, and empowers industrial development. At the 2023 China (Chengdu) Angel Investment Summit held in October, the Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone Angel Capital Guiding Fund signed contracts with 10 fund managers (GPs). Over the past year, the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone has signed contracts with 19 fund managers (GPs), with an angel fund cluster size exceeding 10 billion yuan ($1.36 billion). In addition, the zone is implementing an industrial development fund plan totaling 300 billion yuan, focusing on supporting the development of leading industries such as electronic information, biopharmaceuticals, and the digital economy.

Data shows that the scale of the biopharmaceutical industry in the Chengdu Hi-tech Zone has maintained a 20 percent growth rate for five consecutive years. It has attracted the makers of more than 150 Class 1 new drugs for research and marketing, with over 100 national talent teams and a total of 10 listed and experienced enterprises. It is now home to a large number of Fortune 500 projects such as Medtronic, AstraZeneca, and GE Healthcare. The zone is striving to become an important innovation source for the domestic biopharmaceutical industry and a globally influential and competitive biopharmaceutical industry cluster.