Zhangjiang creates space to drive biopharmaceutical industry
Shanghai's Zhangjiang Science City has been ramping up efforts to grow in size to aid the development of its biopharmaceutical enterprises and boost industrial agglomeration.
"We want to send a signal to scientists and entrepreneurs that there is a large amount of new space being created and put into operation," said Yang Yuanfang, deputy general manager of Shanghai Zhangjiang Biomedical Base Development Co Ltd.
"Over the past 30 years, we have developed and operated some 200,000 square meters of space. The newly added space this time will be twice the existing volume.”
The recently completed ZEMP Headquarters Park, for example, sits on some 100,000 square meters of newly availed land.
Other projects situated on newly created space include the Juli Road No 1 building, which occupies 11,000 square meters, and the Zhangjiang Medicinal Valley Center, which covers an area of over 23,000 square meters.
Efficient use of land resources
A cradle for top talents and innovation vitality, Shanghai Zhangjiang Medical Device Industry Base has attracted several leading companies such as Shanghai Kinetic Co Ltd, a medical device manufacturer, and iRay Technology, a leader in the development and manufacturing of key X-ray system components used in medical, dental, veterinary and industrial imaging applications.
Since its establishment in April 2019, the base has cultivated 11 listed companies that account for about two-thirds of the total in Zhangjiang Science City. These companies have a gross market value of nearly 100 billion yuan ($13.8 billion).
When companies grow, more industrial space is needed. Kinetic's subsidiary Eastpower Medical Innovation Park is one such example. A professional incubator housing enterprises in the fields of medical devices and biotechnology, Eastpower Medical Innovation Park has experienced rapid growth in recent years and needed to expand urgently.
"When we learned that the Zhangjiang Science City had just renovated the nearby Jiechang Park, which has been idle for some time, we immediately went to inquire," said Jin Qiyu, director of public affairs at Kinetic and general manager of Eastpower Medical Innovation Park.
"Newly added industrial spaces such as Jiechang have helped us retain high-quality enterprises in the medical device base and also provided support for the innovative development and industrial aggregation of incubators,"Jin said.
Presently, the 83,000-square-meter industrial space in Jiechang Park is occupied by innovative enterprises such as Wego, Innovex Medical Co Ltd, Shenqi Medical and Raykeen.
ZEMP Headquarters Park
The newly completed ZEMP Headquarters Park has an aesthetically appealing architectural design and will be used for research and development as well as intelligent manufacturing.
The park has six buildings that occupy nearly 100,000 square meters. Compared to the low volume ratio in traditional industrial parks, the volume ratio here stands at 2.0 and the efficiency of industrial space utilization has also been improved.
The park features large terraces that overlook the nearby East China Sea and some public spaces can also be transformed into coffee shops and bars.
Building 1 of the park is about to be occupied by Shenqi Medical, a company that specializes in the field of high-value consumables and has products related to cardiovascular intervention, peripheral vascular intervention, neurovascular intervention and structural heart disease.
A new pharma hub
Construction of the new Zhangjiang Headquarters Park in East Huaxia Road has been progressing at full speed at well.
Within 1-square-kilometer Zhangjiang Headquarters Park, numerous headquarters buildings have been completed and occupied by leading domestic pharmaceutical companies such as Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceuticals Co Ltd, Hanson Pharma and AkesoInc.
This year, construction of the b4-02 plot, which was developed and operated by Zhangjiang Group, has been completed and reserved by well-known pharmaceutical companies.
Currently, seven out of the top 10 global pharmaceutical companies have settled in Zhangjiang. Ten out of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies have also established innovation centers here, and nearly one-third of China's top 100 pharmaceutical companies have set up research institutes in Zhangjiang.
The policy Regulations on Promoting the Construction of Zhangjiang as A Highland for Biomedical Industry Innovation in Pudong New Area, Shanghai maps out new measures to help enterprises overcome various bottlenecks in terms of registration services, the use of medical devices and supervision of the entry and exit of special items.
Statistics show that there are more than 1,300 drug pipelines in Zhangjiang, with over 1,200 of them being research drugs. Half of the drugs belong to Category 1, and nearly one-third of them have dual registration for international and domestic clinical trials.
"Industrial space is the foundation upon which enterprises can take root. Zhangjiang explores the potential of space by increasing reserves of industrial land and optimizing the use of existing land," said Liu Gang, deputy general manager of Zhangjiang Biomedical Base Development.
"By improving the quality and capacity of spatial carriers, we can accelerate the industrialization process of innovative results."