A couple in the medical circle, sitting on a listed company

Couples in the medical circle are holding up a piece of the sky.

Not long ago, the medical unicorn Shukun Technology submitted a prospectus on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange to sprint to the "first share of medical AI". The company is helmed by a couple – Ma Chun'e and Mao Xinsheng. Ma Chun'e graduated from Northwestern Polytechnical University, and her husband Mao Xinsheng graduated from Peking University, and their fate began with IBM. At the age of 35, Ma Chun'e decided to resign to start Shukun Technology, and then her husband joined and started a joint entrepreneurial career.

This is the tip of the iceberg in the medical circle of couples. Compared with other industries, there are especially many "fairy lovers" in the medical circle, who come from famous schools, focus on the majors they have learned, and finally stand on the IPO bell ringing stage together with entrepreneurship. Today, we combed through several medical circles of couples - Hengrui Pharmaceutical Sun Piaoyang and Hansen Pharmaceutical Zhong Huijuan couple, Nuocheng JianhuaShi Yigong Zhao Renbin couple, WuXi AppTec Li Ge Zhao Ning couple, Zaiding Pharmaceutical Du Ying Zhang Yafei couple..... Get a glimpse into their stories.

Economist Xue Zhaofeng once used economics to explain marriage, he said that marriage is the establishment of a limited partnership between the two parties, and the relationship between husband and wife is essentially a partnership. Entrepreneurship is fiercely competitive, it is difficult to go alone, if both husband and wife have their own strengths, then the husband and wife partner entrepreneurship is also a good choice.

Sun Piaoyang & Zhong Huijuan

Each sits on a 100 billion listed company

The couple now each runs a public company, which is legendary.

Sun Piaoyang and Zhong Huijuan are both fellow Jiangsu compatriots. Born in Jinhu, Jiangsu Province in 1958, Sun Piaoyang studied medicinal chemistry at China Pharmaceutical University and Nanjing University with a master's degree. After graduation, Sun Piaoyang was assigned to Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory (the predecessor of Hengrui Pharmaceutical) as a technician. He was also once transferred to the past by the pharmaceutical industry company, the superior of the Lianyungang pharmaceutical factory, as the deputy section chief.

However, at that time, the operation of Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory was not optimistic, and Sun Piaoyang was ordered to return to Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory to work as deputy director. Because of his outstanding personal ability, Sun Piaoyang was appointed as the director of the factory at the age of 32.

After taking office, Sun Piaoyang developed more than 20 new products in 5 years, bought patents, researched technology, and under his efforts, the revenue of Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory exceeded 100 million yuan in 1996. Later, Lianyungang Pharmaceutical Factory was restructured and transformed into today's Hengrui Pharmaceutical, and Sun Piaoyang became the actual controller of Hengrui Pharmaceutical. According to the latest data, the market value of Hengrui Pharmaceutical exceeds 320 billion yuan.

Compared with her husband Sun Piaoyang's entrepreneurial history, Zhong Huijuan belongs to the medical circle by mistake. Zhong Huijuan was born in Lianyungang City, and after graduating from her university major in chemistry, she became a chemistry teacher. In 1995, Sun Piaoyang and a Hong Kong investor formed a new venture, Howson Pharmaceuticals, the predecessor of Hansen Pharmaceutical. But he was really helpless, helpless, and his wife Zhong Huijuan decided to resign and start a business.

At that time, their entrepreneurial conditions were very difficult, until April 1997, Howson fist products, antibiotic drug "Meifeng" put on the market, that year to achieve income of 30 million yuan. With the efforts of Zhong Huijuan and her team, in 2003, Howson became one of the top 100 pharmaceutical enterprises in China.

Zhong Huijuan did not stop at generic drugs, but took precautions - spending nearly 10% of her annual sales revenue into the research and development of new drugs. In December 2015, after a series of capital operations, Jiangsu Haosen became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hansen. Today, Hansen Pharmaceutical has become the largest pharmaceutical company for mental illness in China. In June 2019, Zhong Huijuan stood on the stage of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and now has a market value of more than HK$110 billion.

At this point, the drug king couple each sits on a 100 billion listed company - Sun Piaoyang is in charge of Hengrui Pharmaceutical, and Zhong Huijuan is in charge of Hansen Pharmaceutical.

Shi Yigong & Zhao Renbin

Tsinghua alumni have teamed up to create an IPO

The company co-founded by the couple, Nuocheng Jianhua, is about to return to the A-share secondary listing.

In 1967, Shi Yigong was born in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and attended high school in Zhumadian High School in Henan Province, and Hillhouse Zhang Lei was an alumnus. He was very capable of mathematics, and in 1985 he was sent to Tsinghua. After graduating from Tsinghua University, Shi Yigong went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine to pursue a Doctorate in Biophysics and Chemistry.

In 1997, before completing his postdoctoral research, he was hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Molecular Biology at Princeton University. In just 9 years, Shi Yigong won the highest-ranking professorship at Princeton University. It is worth mentioning that Yan Ning, who became the youngest doctoral supervisor in Tsinghua at the age of 30, is also a proud protégé of Shi Yigong.

During his studies in the United States, Shi Yigong also met his wife Zhao Renbin. Zhao Renbin is also a bully, in 1986, she was admitted to Tsinghua University, two years younger than Shi Yigong, so they did not know each other at Tsinghua University. Later, Shi Yigong graduated early due to his excellent academic performance, and the two studied for a doctorate at Princeton University in the United States, where they met and fell in love.

In dr. Shi Yigong's second year, the two married and had twins. Shi Yigong became a tenured professor at Princeton University and continued his scientific research. Zhao Renbin chose another path - after graduation, she successively served as a senior scientist, researcher and chief scientist at Johnson & Johnson, and later as the director of pharmaceutical biology at PPD's Baonuo Technology, which laid the foundation for helping her husband Shi Yigong start a business in the future.

In 2008, Shi Yigong made a decision that shocked the industry by giving up a research grant of up to $10 million and resigning as a tenured professor at the university to return to China. Shi Yigong returned to his alma mater, Tsinghua University, and successively served as the dean of the School of Life Sciences of Tsinghua University and the vice president of Tsinghua University. At the same time, Shi Yigong began his entrepreneurial career, and Zhao Renbin became the director of the biological laboratory of Tianchen Industrial Company in order to help her husband share the burden.

Nuocheng Jianhua was their first IPO. At present, the latest market value of Nuocheng Jianhua Hong Kong stocks exceeds HK$26 billion, and Shi Yigong's wife Zhao Renbin is one of the actual controllers.

Li Ge & Zhao Ning

The Xueba couple is at the helm of 450 billion WuXi App AppTec

Behind WuXi AppTec also stands a couple of school bullies.

The industry refers to companies related to WuXi AppTec as the "WuXi System", and its founder Li Ge rarely appears in the public eye, which is very low-key. Li Ge and his wife Zhao Ning are both super scholars, and after graduating from Peking University, they both went to the United States for further study, and at the same time obtained a doctorate in organic chemistry from Columbia University, accompanying people all the way.

However, WuXi AppTec is not Li Ge's first IPO project. After graduating with a Ph.D. from Columbia University, Li joined the mentor's entrepreneurial biotechnology company Pharmacopeia (Pharmacopeia Company) and became a partner and one of the founding scientists of the company. When Pharmacopeia landed on the NASDAQ in 1995, Li Ge was 28 years old.

Before returning to China to start a business, Li Ge found that most of China's original research drugs were in the hands of foreign companies, most of the research and development technology remained in scientific research institutes and universities, there was a lack of commercial company media between pharmaceutical companies and technology, and there was a disconnect between production, learning and research. He saw an opportunity in it and decided to return to China to start a business. By chance, Li Ge discovered the CRO model, and if there is no accident, he is also the first person to introduce the CRO model to China.

When Li Ge first started his business in the United States, his wife Zhao Ning worked for multinational pharmaceutical companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pharmacopoeia Pharmaceuticals and Wyeth in the United States. After the establishment of WuXi AppTec, Zhao Ning returned to China to start a business with her husband and was one of the co-founders of WuXi AppTec. According to the official website, Zhao Ning now serves as a senior vice president of WuXi AppTec.

After more than two decades of development, WuXi AppTec has gradually developed into one of the CRO giants, known as the "Alibaba" in the medical field. As of press time, the giant's A stock market value exceeded 450 billion yuan, forming an unshakable position in the medical circle.

Zhang Yafei & Du Ying

The "big sister" in the medical circle and the husband who rarely shows his face

In the early years, after graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a Ph.D. in biochemistry, Ying Du joined Pfizer, the world's largest biopharmaceutical company.

In 2002, with the strong support of Li Ka-shing, Du Ying returned to China to found Hutchison Whampoa Pharmaceutical (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. In 2006, Hehuang Pharmaceutical was successfully listed on the London Stock Exchange.

Since then, Du Ying has made a major decision to join Sequoia China and take charge of China's pharmaceutical investment business. During this period, BGI Gene, Beida Pharmaceutical and Xikang Biology, which she led the investment, have all been listed one after another, with outstanding achievements.

In 2014, Du Ying started her business for the second time and established Zaiding Pharmaceutical, which opened up a pharmaceutical development model in China with BD innovation as its specialty. In just three years, she led Zaiding Pharmaceutical to successfully land on the NASDAQ in the United States, becoming the shortest and most valuable biopharmaceutical company from its inception to listing at that time. At present, the company's market value exceeds HK$10 billion.

Compared with Du Ying, her husband Zhang Yafei is much more low-key.

Zhang Yafei is engaged in the development and management of in vitro diagnostic reagents, so there is little news about him. In fact, he is du Ying's strongest supporter of many entrepreneurial and career track changes. According to public information, at present, Zhang Yafei is the general manager of a company jointly established by Suzhou Biomedical Industrial Park and Kaijie of Germany.

In the eyes of her husband, Zhang Yafei, Du Ying is both a successful entrepreneur and a competent mother and wife. He once told the media that Du Ying has a high emotional intelligence, is good at interacting with people, and she is very clear about her goals, very focused, and will not be distracted by other small things.

Pu Zhongjie & Zhang Yue'e

It is about to win the third listed company

They are known as the strongest partners in the "medical device circle".

Pu Zhongjie and Zhang Yue'e are at the helm of Lepu Medical and Puhua Heshun respectively, and the couple may gain a third listed company , and their control of Lepu Biologics has also submitted a listing application with an estimated market value of 10 billion.

Both of them graduated from Xi'an Jiaotong University. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, Pu Zhongjie specialized in metal materials at the Beijing Iron and Steel Research Institute. In the early 1990s, as a visiting scholar, he entered Florida International University in the United States and began to work on the development of cardiac stents. Pu Zhongjie is optimistic about the prospects of stent products, and plunges into the development of biomaterials and interventional medical devices. During this period, he also applied for 15 national patents.

After obtaining a bachelor's degree in materials science and engineering from Xi'an Jiaotong University, Zhang Yue'e went to Florida International University in the United States in 1996 to pursue a master's degree in management.

Their entrepreneurial careers began in 1998, when the two founded their first company, WP Medical Technologies Inc. in Florida. The following year, Pu Zhongjie returned to China and founded two companies in succession, one of which was Lepu Medical.

At the same time, Zhang Yue'e was not idle. In 2008, Zhang Yue'e and Warburg Pincus Ventures joined forces to acquire three medical device companies (Volt, Weiman and Born) at a low valuation and established a new medical device company, Puhua Heshun. In November 2013, PwC and Shun went public in Hong Kong.

Today, they each run a company, but they are both low-key.

Ma Chun'e & Mao Xinsheng

The upstart of medical AI is rushing to the IPO to ring the bell

The medical couple who are about to appear on the IPO bell ringing stage are most likely Mao Xinsheng and Ma Chun'e, and the number kun technology they run has submitted a prospectus and is sprinting for the first share of medical AI. At present, Ma Chun'e is the founder and CEO of the company, and her husband Mao Xinsheng is the chairman.

Ma Chun'e and Mao Xinsheng were related to IBM. In 2002, Ma Chun'e studied automation at Northwestern Polytechnical University and obtained a master's degree in computer communication and engineering in 2007. After graduation, Ma Joined IBM and was responsible for the incubation of IBM Cloud and IBM Cognitive Computing related products.

Husband Mao Xinsheng, 48 years old, received a master's degree in computer science from Peking University in July 1997. Later, Mao Xinsheng joined IBM, and from 2000 to 2014, he held various positions, including chief technology officer of IBM's China Development Center. Of course, in this process, we have also accumulated a lot of experience in the language automatic recognition (ASR), AI, cloud computing and big data industries, laying the foundation for future entrepreneurship.

In 2017, 35-year-old Ma Chun'e ushered in a major turning point in her life. At that time, she saw many patients and their families, in order to treat their diseases, came to Beijing from far and wide, slept in the hospital with a roll, waiting for just an expert number or a test, and she wanted to do something.

When the child was one year old, Ma Chun'e and her husband Mao Xinsheng joined forces to found Shukun Technology. As for why she chose the medical AI track, Ma Chun'e once said that in addition to the experience of working at IBM before, medical care is also a more humane industry that needs warmth and care.

In the four years since its establishment, Shukun Technology has become a star unicorn. Through the prospectus, the outside world saw the VC/PE lineup behind Shukun Technology: Huagai Capital, Yuanyi Capital, Wuyuan Capital, Sequoia China, CCV Genesis Partners, Qiming Venture Capital, Zhongke Chuangda, Bohai Industrial Investment Fund, Jianxing Medical Fund, Langmafeng Venture Capital, Kelly E-Square Capital, Zhongjin Pucheng, China Rei, Qingzhou Capital, Primavera Capital... It's luxurious.

It is worth mentioning that Shukun Technology is the fourth medical AI company to deliver a table this year. Previously, Keya Medical, Speculation, and Eagle Pupil Technology have submitted listing applications, and they are all star enterprises in the medical AI track.

Write at the end

As the saying goes, husband and wife are in the same heart, and their profits are broken.

There are also many couples in the medical circle who have joined hands to start a business, such as China Biopharmaceutical Xie Bingzheng Xiangling and his wife, domestic heparin sodium API company Li Li Tan and his wife, Kangmei Pharmaceutical Ma Xingtian Xu Dong and his wife, Zhifei Biological Jiang Rensheng Liao Xiaoming and his wife, Zhaoyan new drug Feng Yuxia Zhou Zhiwen and his wife..... Compared with other industries, there are many couples in the medical circle, which has become a unique scenery.

Through them, we can vaguely see the portrait of the couple in the medical circle who start a business: both sides are academic bullies, both are from famous universities, and their academic qualifications are very high; the husband and wife majors have a certain complementarity. What is even more surprising is that the couple files in the medical circle are often "outside the heroine", many of which are wives standing in front of the stage, and husbands are low-key and invisible behind them.

In the venture capital circle, husband and wife entrepreneurship is regarded as a special form of team entrepreneurship, with advantages and disadvantages and controversies, and even some investors have opened their mouths to never invest in companies that husband and wife start a business. But a large number of successful medical couples prove that couples can also support one IPO after another.