On October 8, under the witness of the Health Professional Committee of Shanghai Modern Service Industry Federation, the live biological drug (LBP) pipeline for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) of Zhangjiang Live Biopharmaceutical R&D Center was officially launched. Jian Danian, vice president of Shanghai Modern Service Industry Federation, said that the federation will continue to closely follow Shanghai's modern industrial system and introduce more high-level technology enterprises to Pudong and Zhangjiang.
It is the first comprehensive national science center to be established. Over the past 30 years, 24,000 enterprises, more than 1,800 high-tech enterprises and 179 foreign-funded R&D centers have "broken ground" in the fertile soil of Zhangjiang Science City. At present, it has a series of national strategic overlapping opportunities such as the National Science and Technology Innovation Center, Independent Innovation Demonstration Zone, Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, Pudong Leading Zone, and High-level Talent Highland.
Why is Zhangjiang focusing on the diabetes drug pipeline this time? What else will the biomedical industry do in Zhangjiang? Experts are discussing new drug research and development and entrepreneurial ecology.
Create a "tropical rainforest" venture capital ecology in Zhangjiang
It is reported that Zhangjiang Medicine Valley Platform was established in 2004, and at the end of 2007, it passed the certification of the "National High-tech Entrepreneurship Service Center" of the Ministry of Science and Technology (national biomedical professional incubator), and at the same time passed the accreditation of the National Conformity Assessment Laboratory. Zhangjiang Pharmaceutical Valley relies on incubation services, takes professional technical services and investment and financing services as the pillars, and focuses on professional incubation and incubation at the front end of the new drug R&D and production chain. "For more than 30 years, Zhangjiang, located in Pudong New Area, has long been the preferred entrepreneurial destination for overseas returned students." Yuan Tao, chairman of Shanghai (Zhangjiang) Group Co., Ltd., said that first, Shanghai itself is an international city; Second, Zhangjiang has a large number of multinational companies and R&D centers, and the spillover effect superimposed on industrial development naturally forms an entrepreneurial ecology. Especially in recent years, the country attaches great importance to high-tech development, and biomedicine, artificial intelligence and integrated circuits have become the three major hardcore industries in Shanghai. "Especially in the field of biomedicine, Zhangjiang is providing opportunities for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.
Ling Gang, chief engineer of the Pudong New Area Science and Economic Commission, said that the real Chinese drug innovation began around 2014 and has entered an accelerated period in the past decade. "At present, the number of innovative drugs in mainland China accounts for about 23.7% of the world, which is undoubtedly the second largest echelon in the world in the short term." It is revealed that taking Zhangjiang as an example, the focus on drug research and development in the fields of cells and genes will be fully built from the aspects of industrial positioning, policy support and service platforms to create a "tropical rainforest-style" venture capital ecology.
He vividly compared it to the "six major canal industries" - by 2025, Pudong will cultivate and form six "100 billion-level" hard-core industrial clusters, of which "innovative drugs" will be built into 200 billion yuan industrial clusters. "In the next step, we will invest more support in the fields of talent policy and the development of the traditional Chinese medicine industry."
Ge Guangbo, executive vice president of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Sciences of Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and chief consultant of pharmacy, mentioned that many components in traditional Chinese medicinal materials are difficult to absorb into the blood, so in many cases, their clinical efficacy is achieved by regulating the intestinal flora, thereby producing endogenous metabolism. "This is a very promising direction, in the multi-team focus of universities, enterprises and medical institutions, we hope to make basic research eventually go to the clinic through the close integration of production, learning and research, and develop safe and effective new Chinese drugs."
Build a long-term pipeline platform for gut microbiome
The research and development of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2D) live biological drugs (LBP) launched this time is a new attempt by Zhangjiang enterprises. Chen Weijie, chairman of Shanghai Lishan Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., introduced that according to the latest progress of the research team, a live biological drug targeting insulin resistance subtypes of type 2 diabetes will be launched, which is planned to enter phase 1 clinical trials in 2025. It is reported that the innovative live biological drug is expected to become the first-line drug for specific subgroups of type 2 diabetes, changing the current glucose control route of type 2 diabetes. At the same time, more than 700 strains of drug-specific characteristic bacteria will be screened and isolated by 2026 to complete the genetic puzzle and culture storage of new strains.
It is reported that gut microbiome is a new track in international biomedical research, which breaks through the limitations of traditional biomedicine, explores the boundaries of innovative biological drugs in multidisciplinary cross-integration through cross-multi-omics and artificial intelligence deep learning of big data. "Especially in the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease, infectious and metabolic diseases, live bacterial therapy has opened a new revolution in treatment. This therapy neutralizes inflammatory and metabolic signals produced by pathogens by introducing beneficial microorganisms into the human flora affected by the disease. He revealed that although the project is currently known as the pipeline of type 2 diabetes, in the future, it will use this platform to enrich the bacterial library and basic research theory, and look forward to the final energy source to continuously produce new drugs for various immunomodulatory disorders.
"The Health Committee will be built into a platform to serve enterprises, universities, members and society, connect the upstream and downstream industries in the field of health, provide support for cross-border integration, and let more such achievements truly take root." Fan Jincheng, chairman of the Great Health Committee, said.
Editor-in-chief: Gu Yong
Source: Author: Boxwood