Chen Lili, Chairman of Mingde Biologics: Let everyone enjoy more convenient and high-quality medical and health services

Reporter Li Wanchenxi

Short hair, capable and wise are the first impressions that Chen Lili, chairman of Mingde Biologics, gave to reporters.

From "Angel in White" to "Entrepreneurial Elite"

More than ten years ago, As a doctor, Chen Lili took off her white coat and crossed from a doctor to a business and became an entrepreneur in the field of biomedicine. Deeply ploughing the field of POCT (instant diagnosis), starting from Wuhan Optics Valley Bio-City, becoming the first listed company independently cultivated by Wuhan Optics Valley Bio-City.

From doctors, scholars to entrepreneurs to the helmsman of the enterprise, Chen Lili turned gorgeously, as one of the few female chairmen of Hubei listed companies, Chen Lili insisted on the original intention, focused on research and development, so that instant diagnostic products to achieve import substitution, so that "POCT" gradually spread throughout China.

Chen Lili graduated from Tongji Medical College of Huazhong University of Science and Technology with a postgraduate degree, and later went to Europe and the United States to study, received a doctorate in medicine from Heidelberg University in Germany, and a postdoctoral fellow at Boston University Medical Center in the United States, becoming a scholar-type entrepreneur.

"During my time as a doctor, I found that when patients with acute myocardial infarction were admitted to a hospital with strong treatment ability in Tongji Hospital, they often missed the golden time of treatment, which is very important because of the lack of tools and application mechanisms for rapid diagnosis before and in the hospital. During my study abroad at heidelberg University in Germany, I further experienced the gap between China's rapid diagnosis and European and American countries, and came up with the idea of developing rapid diagnosis products. Chen Lili told the Securities Daily reporter.

By chance, Chen Lili participated in the "First 'Chunhui Cup' Chinese Overseas Students Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition" held by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China during her study abroad, and learned about the wuhan overseas students' entrepreneurship park's strong support policies for returnees to start a business, and the strong atmosphere of investment and innovation and entrepreneurship in the park boosted her entrepreneurial enthusiasm. Therefore, with the original intention of "making POCT spread all over China and making rapid diagnosis possible", Chen Lili and Dr. Wang Ying founded Mingde Biology together.

In 2008, Mingde Bio was established in Wuhan International Student Entrepreneurship Park to engage in the research and development of rapid detection reagents. For the first two years, Chen Lili called it the "exploration period."

"After the first product we launched was not recognized by the market, we slowly discovered the difference between market demand and scientific research." Chen Lili said. In 2010, Lili Chen went to the United States for postdoctoral research. After a deeper understanding of the development of the foreign in vitro diagnostic industry, she believes that POCT quantitative testing is still in the early stages of China, and the development opportunities are great, which strengthens her determination to start a business. Before 2011, Chen Lili and her team completed the product registration of 10 qualitative detection reagents, laying a good foundation for the development of quantitative reagents after that. In 2011, with the return of Chen Lili, Mingde Bio officially set sail.

In the first half of 2012, Mingde Bio took the lead in launching a high-throughput, intelligent POCT detection platform in China, which is not only simple to operate, but also can be tested for whole blood multiple indicators. Therefore, as soon as this product is introduced to the market, it immediately opens up the gap with existing products in terms of customer experience. Today, nearly 5,000 medical institutions across the country use the product, and the company has achieved rapid growth.

When asked by reporters about the challenges faced by a female entrepreneur, Chen Lili said: "Entrepreneurs need to find a certain opportunity for survival and development from the uncertainty of the future, this nine-death entrepreneurial road, regardless of gender, the challenge is the same." Chen Lili's tone was firm.

From entrepreneurial elites to the heads of listed companies

Ten years of entrepreneurship has finally ushered in a new journey of enterprise development.

In July 2018, Mingde Bio officially landed on the small and medium-sized board, and the top grid rose on the first day of listing, and then won 13 consecutive one-word up and down boards, with the highest stock price reaching 101.66 yuan / share.

POCT belongs to the subdivision of the in vitro diagnostic industry (IVD), and the domestic POCT started late, so the development speed is fast and the development potential is huge. With the implementation of graded diagnosis and treatment, POCT has ushered in greater room for development.

After Mingde Bio landed in the capital market, under the leadership of Chen Lili, it insisted on research and development and innovation and continued to make breakthroughs.

At present, the product line has been expanded to a number of subdivisions of in vitro diagnosis, the fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay platform and more than 30 luminescent reagents, 4 molecular diagnostic reagent products, wet blood gas analysis platform, mobile electrocardiogram machine have been listed, and the chest pain center and stroke center solutions that improve the diagnosis and treatment efficiency of clinical acute cardiovascular and cerebrovascular events have also been implemented in many medical institutions in China.

Chen Lili introduced that in 2019, the company successfully developed a series of POCT products, such as the whole blood POCT chemiluminescence platform, the chemiluminescence immunoassay technology for the POCT platform, which is a huge breakthrough in technology, can achieve instant detection around the patient, quickly obtain accurate diagnostic results; and the wet blood gas analyzer, which has obtained the registration certificate of the State Food and Drug Administration, is China's first card package integrated wet blood gas product, which takes only 80 seconds to obtain the patient's blood pH, PO2, PCO2, as well as ion and metabolite concentrations, has become an indispensable equipment for critically ill patient care units, heart care units, operating rooms and emergency departments, etc. In the past, this product was monopolized by imports for a long time, and now the product is expected to achieve import substitution.

According to the 2020 performance forecast of Mingde Biologics, the company has achieved high-quality growth, and Mingde Biologics expects to achieve a net profit of 440 million yuan to 500 million yuan in 2020, an increase of 959.58% -1104.07% year-on-year.

If 2012 to 2018 is the first stage of the development of Matilda Biologics, Matilda Biology has achieved its goal of becoming a high-throughput POCT leader. Then, in the second stage from 2019 to 2025, the company will take advantage of the opportunity of listing and use capital market tools to strive to become a leader in instant, accurate and intelligent diagnostic system solutions. Chen Lili said that in the next 3-5 years, the overall solution of emergency and critical diagnosis products + services + information platforms in about 2,000 grade hospitals will radiate more than 10,000 primary medical institution sites, forming a multi-center intelligent diagnosis platform for regional collaborative treatment of chest pain and stroke, helping medical institutions improve diagnosis and treatment efficiency, reduce the consumption of valuable treatment time and resources, and let everyone enjoy more efficient and high-quality medical services.

In the future, Chen Lili hopes that Mingde Bio will develop products suitable for home through continuous innovation of instant diagnosis products, and provide health products and services for more individuals with the help of the extension of out-of-hospital services of the smart diagnosis platform, so that everyone can enjoy more convenient and high-quality medical and health services.

Even as the head of a listed company, the company is developing rapidly, Chen Lili's personality is still low-key. For the feeling that both the company and I were more surrounded by the spotlight after the listing, Chen Lili frankly said: "Whether it is me or co-founder Dr. Wang Ying, our own style is relatively low-key, and since the beginning of the business, we have focused on the company's business development, and have less external interviews, even after the listing of Matilda. But with the development of enterprises, especially as a listed enterprise, strengthen communication with the outside world, let investors know what kind of enterprise Mingde Bio is, and understand more about the development of the enterprise, which is what listed companies and the chairman should do, so from this year onwards, communication with the outside world has been included in our key work, and its essence is to let everyone know more about Mingde Bio, not in the glory of being surrounded by the spotlight. ”

Chen Lili also said: "Our original intention determines the corporate culture and strategic direction of Mingde, whether before or after the listing of Mingde, whether behind the scenes or in front of the stage, our original intention has not changed, our direction has not changed." So as a leader, there are more exposure opportunities, and for me personally, this is my job, my career! ”

(Editing by Shangguan Monroe)

This article originated from the Securities Daily network