Recent internet bosses have been fascinated by "immortality".
The "immortality" here is certainly not the kind that Qin Shi Huang pursued, but refers to the life sciences.
In the past, Zhang Yiming devoted himself to the exploration of projects such as "brain diseases", and then Huang Zheng donated 100 million yuan to set up a fund to explore the direction of life sciences.
Recently, Wang Xiaochuan, the former CEO of Sogou, who "went away frustrated", also set his sights on life sciences and medicine after leaving Sogou.
In addition to this group of Internet tycoons who announced retirement and bet the rest of their lives on the life sciences track, Ma Yun, Robin Li, Chen Tianqiao, Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Sergey Brin and other Internet tycoons have also set up funds, ventures or investments in the life sciences field.
Just like the first time to start a business a few years ago, the Internet tycoon who is now engaged in life sciences also has a dream-chasing heart.
Billionaires risk their lives more than ordinary people? Not necessarily, I'm afraid, but they have enough money and motivation to study the life sciences.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > the "retirement return" of Internet tycoons </h1>
Just like joint planning, Zhang Yiming, Huang Zheng, and Wang Xiaochuan's whereabouts after "retirement" are all life sciences.
On October 19, four days after announcing his departure from Sogou, Wang Xiaochuan invested in DeepCare, a medical technology company focused on oral artificial intelligence applications, and in August, he also invested in the intestinal medical technology developer Zealvo Institute.
During his tenure at Sogou, Wang Xiaochuan also invested in Dr. Chunyu and set up a medical science popularization platform "Sogou MingYi" within Sogou to achieve services such as "intelligent consultation" and "finding a doctor" through AI technology.
Why they chose to put the "second half of their lives" in the life sciences, each big guy gave a different reason.
The reason Zhang Yiming gave was that biology was his unfinished dream. Robin Li once revealed in a public statement that he has been interested in biology since he was a child. Fu Sheng, CEO of Cheetah, sees biology as a discipline that can open up a lot of cross-border knowledge, and compared with natural sciences such as physics, biology reveals the underlying laws of the world more profoundly.
Earlier, Han Bing, a partner at Cambrian Ventures, had concluded that Ma Huateng, Zhang Yiming, Wang Xiaochuan, Fu Sheng and other bigwigs were affected by "biological thinking" in the fields of enterprise management and product design. This seems to be the same as the evolutionary theory of biology that the big guys talked about opening up the underlying logic of the operation of the enterprise, and putting a tall and mysterious hat on their entry into the life science field, as if completing the first long-cherished wish of life, sacred and resolute.
The essence of biology is to explore people, and business management is also inseparable from people's physical and mental structure and behavior, which is not difficult to explain why the Internet boss will run biological thinking through the underlying logic of enterprise operation.
But from a business perspective, some branches of the life sciences are the ones that entrepreneurs, Internet moguls and investors see as promising.
According to Deloitte Consulting data, due to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the number of transactions in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical segment reached 106 in 2020, accounting for about 62.7% of the total number of transactions in the whole year, an increase of 23.3% over 2019, of which the annual number of transactions in the biotechnology segment was 48 and the number of transactions in the pharmaceutical segment reached 58. The number of transactions in medical devices, medical services and other areas in 2020 was 63, accounting for about 37.3% of the total number of transactions.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h5" > Source: Deloitte Consulting Report </h2>
It is not difficult to see from the table that biological sciences and pharmaceuticals are the only two segments in which the value and number of transactions will increase in 2020.
Specific to the technical level, CRISPR toolkit, immunotherapy 2.0, cure for rare diseases, genetic big data, brain science and brain-computer interface, smart medical care, etc. have gradually become the core technologies in the field of life sciences. Among them, the brain science and technology direction track is particularly hot.
In the brain science track, it is represented by Chen Tianqiao, the founder of Shanda Network.
In 2016, Chen Tianqiao, who has been low-key for a long time, donated $1 billion to the California Institute of Technology in the United States to establish the Brain Science Research Institute - Chen Tianqiao Luo Qianqian Research Institute (referred to as TCCI) for basic brain biology research, mainly including the layout of three major areas: brain discovery, brain treatment, and brain development.
Chen Tianqiao has bet the rest of his life on "extremely slow cycle" brain science research, which is a dramatic choice.
At the beginning of the 21st century, a popular online game "Legend" helped Chen Tianqiao to become the richest man in China, but then came the problem of some teenagers addicted to games, which made the outside world denounce Chen Tianqiao as an "electronic opium maker", for which Chen Tianqiao once suffered from panic attacks.
To this end, Chen Tianqiao chose to cash out nearly 10 billion yuan in China to donate to the research of brain science, and later even immersed himself in the study, research and investment of brain science, Chen Tianqiao almost focused all his energy on this direction.
Ding Daoshi, a senior Internet observer, admitted to "Phoenix WEEKLY Finance" that the most impressive person who mentioned the big guy's entry into the life sciences was Chen Tianqiao, who saw his dedication and enthusiasm for brain science research.
Ding Daoshi said that no matter what purpose these Internet giants choose to enter the field of life sciences, it is undeniable that this is a thing worth affirming, after all, the exploration of life sciences is a good direction, it is from the perspective of people themselves to think about prolonging the length of life, research on some biological problems that have not yet been overcome, and explore new fields of great significance such as innovative drugs and brain science. ”
< h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > life sciences under the blessing of the big guys, how wild is it? </h1>
No matter what industry, the entry of big guys and giants will always cause a big sensation. The Life Sciences Track is no exception.
The entry of technology giants and Internet giants has attracted much attention to the life sciences track, and the sense of smell of capital has become more sensitive, which has also shortened the financing cycle of startups on the track.
According to ChinaBio's report, China's investment in the life sciences sector showed an astonishing increase in 2020, and the amount of investment raised hit a new high. In addition, in terms of the number of IPOs in the life sciences sector, a total of 80 Chinese life science companies will be listed in 2020, an increase of 77% year-on-year.
In addition, deloitte consulting reports show that in China's life sciences and healthcare industry, the number of unprofitable biotech companies listed in 2020 peaked. Among them, a total of 22 newly listed companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange reached 67.2 billion yuan, an increase of 66.6% year-on-year; 45 A-share companies were newly listed with a financing scale of 61.5 billion yuan, an increase of 246.8% year-on-year.
It is undeniable that the development of life sciences has entered a "golden age". In 2020, Zhang Lei, founder of Hillhouse Capital, publicly stated that under the background of the new crown epidemic, medical health is the biggest investment opportunity, and life sciences and biotechnology are expected to usher in the era of a big outbreak.
Zhang Lei once explained that Hillhouse began to enter the life sciences industry around 2012, and after four years of loneliness, it ushered in an outbreak.
Zhang Lei once told Li Xiaojia, chief executive of HKEX Group, that the key to investing in biotechnology is to be more long-term in the general direction, and without long-termism, biotechnology is impossible to have a chance.
This has given the Internet bigwigs a wake-up call, and long-termism has always been contrary to "Internet speed".
Some entrepreneurs told the "Phoenix WEEKLY Finance" reporter that the entry threshold of the life science track is very high, although the capital has chased over, but the entrepreneurs are still relatively sober, because this track not only has capital, technical strength and business direction are very important. And in terms of technical strength, it cannot be only a single background, but also needs to have a cross-background.
Industry insiders admit that there may be big guys who believe in "Internet speed" to carry out staged transformation after chasing the wind, but as a high-value track, its return on investment is also very high.
In 2020, Hillhouse Capital won a total of 42 IPOs, including 22 medical projects, including JD Health, which has a market value of HK$500 billion just after listing, and star projects such as innovative biopharmaceutical company Junshi Bio and domestic insulin leader Gan&Lee Pharmaceutical.
According to the data, as of the end of June 2020, Hillhouse Capital has invested more than 160 enterprises in the fields of biomedicine, medical devices, medical services, pharmaceutical retail and other fields, with a total investment amount of more than 120 billion yuan and a total market value of more than 2.5 trillion yuan.
<h2 toutiao-origin="h5" > pictured is Zhang Lei </h2>
According to a Deloitte consulting report, from 2016 to 2020, the life sciences and healthcare industry was the industry in which domestic companies raised the most funds on the SSE/SZSE before listing. Specifically, Deloitte found that the top 10 listed companies by amount of financing have all been listed in the last three years. Of these, 5 are biopharmaceutical companies and 3 are classified as for-profit biotech companies.
<h1 toutiao-origin="h1" > life sciences are not easy to do </h1>
Investing is just a bullish attitude. In most cases, life science research is a long and boring process, less likely to produce results, and less so easy to get rewards.
Since TCCI was founded in 2016, there has been no major breakthrough in basic research on the brain, but Chen Tianqiao is relatively indifferent to this, and said that failures in the laboratory occur every day, but this is also valuable, and science itself allows failure.
In July this year, Chen Tianqiao said in an interview with the media that I met with more than 300 scientists and gradually realized that it is difficult to make major breakthroughs in basic research on brain mechanisms in the short term, and it may take 10, 20 years, or even longer.
Still, Mr. Chen insisted he would spend half of the $1 billion pledged in the future on basic research of the remaining $800 million.
In 2018, Charlid, a professor of neuroscience at TCCI's Brain-Computer Interface Center, stimulated the nerves of a patient who was permanently unconscious, making him feel something on the back of his hand crawling again— a 100 percent simulated, non-existent sense of touch.
In July 2021, Chen Tianqiao announced that TCCI will donate 50 million yuan to cooperate with the Shanghai Mental Health Center to build an "Artificial Intelligence and Mental Health Laboratory", focusing on how to use artificial intelligence to carry out mental illness assessment and intervention to improve people's mental health.
What is more terrifying than the difficulty of output is the "rollover" of life sciences.
According to US media reports, on September 5, 2021, Theranos, a US blood testing company, said in an email to shareholders that the company would be formally dissolved.
Theranos once claimed to have mastered microfluidic technology under the slogan of "saying goodbye to terrible needles and blood test tubes" that could provide a faster and cheaper painless blood test: up to 240 medical examinations performed in specialized medical laboratories can be completed by simply pricking a finger to obtain a few drops of blood.
From 2003 to 2013, Oracle founder Larry Ellison and Walmart founder Wharton family announced an investment in Theranos.
But soon, Theranos was revealed, and blood tests done by multiple patients did not match the results of the hospital, and the same sample often had the opposite results. This can lead to the patient receiving the wrong diagnosis and treatment, which directly threatens the safety of the patient's life. Subsequently, fines from regulators and lawsuits from collaborators came one after another.
The Internet + era is often regarded by the outside world as an era of "disruptive innovation", but the inherent laws and complexities of life sciences, as well as the irreversibility of the life of each biological individual, have little room for fault in this "subversion".
For example, this summer, a parent in Hangzhou spent 480,000 yuan a year to fill his son with a full course of "height injections" in order to make his son grow taller. But as a result, the son's height has only increased by 1 centimeter, but his weight has increased by a full 20 pounds. To this end, Xinhua News Agency issued an article pointing out that there are signs of abuse of growth hormone at present.
It has been predicted that "the 21st century will be the century of biology." In this way, the prophecy has long been fulfilled. This is the outlet created by an era, but whether it can survive and do it under the vent remains to be verified by time.
For internet giants who have brought huge sums of money into the market, the road to life sciences is still very long.