Reporting by XinZhiyuan
EDIT: Time
【Introduction to New Zhiyuan】
Nanjing University
Gao Xiang
The professor's "knockout mice" can be sold for 11723 yuan, selling 400 million yuan a year, and the animal model market has increased by 24.2% per year.
While you are still complaining about the "hardships" of scientific research, some people are quietly realizing "wealth freedom".
Recently, the news of "NTU professors selling mice to earn nearly 400 million yuan a year" rushed to the hot search, which really opened the eyes of scientific researchers.
It turns out that the mouse market is so tight!
Why are knockout mice hot?
According to the report, a "knockout mouse" can be sold for 11723 yuan, with a gross profit margin of nearly 95%.
The Professor Gao Xiang of Nanda University can mass-produce experimental mice and generate 394 million yuan in revenue in 2021.
The price of mice ranges from tens to tens of thousands, of which "knockout mice" are the most expensive.
In this scientific research project declaration, the budget for the purchase of mice is divided into ordinary mice and "knockout mice", an ordinary mouse is 25 yuan, and a box (20) "gene knockout mice" is quoted at 3,000 yuan, that is, the average "knockout mouse" needs 150 yuan, which is 6 times the price of ordinary mice.
There is a reason why knockout mice are expensive, because knocking out the genes of each mouse involves a series of "complex projects".
The so-called gene knockout is to use a DNA fragment containing a certain known sequence to homologously recombine genes with the same or similar sequence in the recipient cell genome and integrate it into the recipient cell genome. After gene knockout, it can change the genetic genes of the organism, so that specific gene functions are useless, so that some functions are blocked.
It's still cost-effective to buy directly, but if you want to build your own lab, grow your own mice, and perform gene knockout, it's probably more costly.
However, there is a growing demand for "knockout mice" in the market.
First, the experimental "rat consumption" is large.
Students who have done animal experiments know that mouse experiments are quite "rat-consuming", and every time an experiment is done, it is difficult to count the mice that are "buried" in their hands.
After all, scientific research success depends on 99% of experimental failures and the success of the last experiment, and finally the results of scientific research can be produced.
Second, the market is highly hot in pharmaceutical innovation.
In recent years, driven by the boom in domestic innovative drugs and biological drugs, the demand for pharmaceutical research and development has soared, directly driving the rapid development of pharmaceutical-related industrial chains.
With the increase in pharmaceutical research and development, the demand for customized experimental mice has naturally increased.
Because mice are highly homologous with humans, have similar physiological mechanisms, strong reproductive ability, short generation cycle, and relatively low feeding costs, accounting for about 70% of the domestic experimental animal production.
Third, the "card neck" mainland biotechnology in the United States has forced domestic experimental animal models to be more self-reliant.
In recent years, the biological sector has also been doomed under U.S. technology sanctions, after Shanghai-based WuXi Biotechnology Co., Ltd. was included in the "33 entities list" to expand sanctions.
Even if it is not sanctioned but is limited by foreign technology, it takes at least half a year for domestic scientific research institutions and new drug research and development enterprises to obtain imported laboratory animal models, which seriously restricts the research and development progress of related projects.
With the active research and development of domestic pharmaceutical companies, a number of head enterprises have been spawned, and the "card neck" link is also gradually being solved, which directly drives the demand for upstream experimental animal models.
In this regard, the Muggle who answered zhihu wrote, "You will also use it, just do an experiment, a batch of rats down 100,000 yuan."
And Zhihu user Pat reminded not to use the logic of the pet store to think about the materials used in scientific research, "ten thousand yuan to do gene knockout is very conscientious, much smaller than the profit of the pharmaceutical company."
Pat also offered the cost of experimental mice from American universities, of which the most commonly used B6 background mice at the University of Michigan were $5,800 per strain, and the University of Utah embryonic stem cell injections were $5,000.
It seems that scientific research can really burn money, of course, scientific research can also get rich.
Guinea pigs, big business
Professor Gao Xiang of Nanda University has seen the market of experimental animal models, and such a market is not for everyone to break into.
Dr. Xiang Gao received his Ph.D. in Developmental Biology and Anatomy from Thomas Jefferson University in 1994 and was the founder of the Institute of Model Animals of Nanjing University.
Since professor Gao Xiang was appointed as a professor at Nanjing University in 2000, he has been appointed as a doctoral supervisor in 2002, a distinguished professor of the Jiang Award Program of the Ministry of Education, a national outstanding youth science fund in 2008, a second prize for national scientific and technological progress and a special prize for scientific and technological progress of the Ministry of Education.
In 2001, Professor Gao Xiang led the establishment of the Model Animal Resource Information Platform of Nanjing University, which is the "National Genetic Engineering Mouse Resource Library".
This mouse resource library is mainly responsible for the conservation and supply of mouse resources, disease model creation and development, and is one of the 30 national germplasm resource banks.
During the construction of the project, Professor Gao Xiang established the first conditional gene exclusion mouse in China, and cooperated with Professor Lai Liangxue of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to complete the world's first gene-edited dog.
Professor Gao Xiang is the director of the National Genetic Engineering Mouse Resource Bank, the director of the Institute of Model Animals of Nanjing University School of Medicine, and the vice chairman of the Jiangsu Laboratory Animal Association.
According to the postdoctoral recruitment information of Nanjing University in March 2021, the postdoctoral treatment of Gao Xiang's team is also very impressive, with an annual salary of 180,000-600,000 yuan.
However, in the context of the relative scarcity of overall model animal resources in China, Professor Gao Xiang is not limited to scientific research, and he believes that the establishment of a model animal company is very important to promote the sustainable development of this field.
Therefore, in 2017, he established Yaokang Biology as the chairman, and at the same time, Yaokang Biology is also the co-construction unit of the National Genetic Engineering Mouse Resource Library of Nanjing University.
It is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research and development, production, sales and related technical services of experimental animal mouse models, and the only corporate member of the Asian Mouse Mutation and Resource Alliance.
Less than 5 years after its establishment, Yaokang Biology has more than 20,000 commercialized mouse models with independent intellectual property rights, covering tumors, metabolic system diseases, neurodegenerative diseases, spontaneous immune diseases, cardiovascular diseases and other fields.
This year marks the 100th anniversary of the biology department of Nanjing University.
Just a few days ago, on April 12, the experimental mouse leading IPO began to subscribe, and the total amount of funds raised is expected to be 1.127 billion yuan.
This fundraising will promote the "Spotted Mouse Project", that is, the continuous "knockout mice".
According to the prospectus, in 2018-2021, Yaokang Bio achieved revenue of 53.2906 million yuan, 193 million yuan, 262 million yuan and 394 million yuan respectively.
At present, the mainland animal model market is still in the early stage of development, of which the compound growth rate of domestic rodent laboratory animal products from 2019 to 2024 will reach 24.2%, and the market size is expected to reach 9.8 billion yuan in 2024.
Resources:
http://www.nrcmm.cn/article/faq.html
https://www.zhihu.com/question/528100005
https://www.stcn.com/xw/sd/202204/t20220413_4355637.html