New Action released to support Guangdong in building a trillion-level biotech industry cluster

南方财经全媒体记者杨雨莱 广州报道

On October 9th, Guangdong province issued the "Action Plan for Further Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Guangdong’s Biotech and Pharma Industry" ("Action Plan"), focusing on innovation mechanisms, product enhancement, industry clustering, and environment creation. It addresses key issues and difficulties with 38 key measures. 

In 2023, Guangdong Province's biomedical and health industry cluster achieved a revenue of 663.8 billion yuan, ranking among the top in the country. The Action Plan outlines that by 2027, Guangdong aims to grow the biomedical and health industry cluster to over one trillion yuan, with the pharmaceutical industry’s output value exceeding 500 billion yuan.

Strengthen the Collaboration in GBA for Biotech and Pharma Industry

It is worth noting that the Action Plan mentions Guangdong’s continued efforts to promote innovative drug and device regulation in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). The plan aims to fully utilize the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect policy, accelerate the expansion of designated medical institutions and the scope of products, and explore the gradual expansion of the applicable regional scope.

The number of designated medical institutions under the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect policy has reached 45, covering all nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area. The policy has introduced 79 types of medicines and devices listed in Hong Kong and Macao (39 drugs and 40 devices), benefiting nearly ten thousand residents in the GBA, as Wang Ling, Deputy Director of the Provincial Drug Administration, explained during the press conference.

Wang Ling stated that the legislation surrounding the Hong Kong and Macao Medicine and Equipment Connect policy, along with related policies, has strengthened collaborative development in the biomedical industry across Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao. It has also clarified the responsibilities of all parties and established a “trinity” model for drug and device safety supervision.

“The approval time for urgently needed Hong Kong and Macao medicines and devices (not in the catalog) has been reduced from the original 35 working days to 20, while the approval time for those in the catalog has been cut from 25 working days to 10, representing an average reduction of 50%,” Wang Ling explained.

Attracting Foreign Investment and Boost Self-cultivation

According to the Provincial Department of Commerce, from 2023 to the June of 2024, Guangdong province has attracted a total investment of 389.7 billion yuan in the biomedical and health industry, with 24 headquarters and foreign-funded R&D centers of biomedical multinational companies to settle in Guangdong. Now Guangdong province has become one of the first choices for foreign investment in the biotech and pharma field.  

Guangdong province has introduced a new round of foreign investment policies this year. In May, Guangdong province introduced a special implementation plan to further increase the attraction and utilization of foreign investment, and implemented incentives for foreign-funded enterprises registered in our province and new growth investment reaching a certain amount.

The new policy has offered strong support in incentives for foreign enterprises, which are divided into different levels of investment ratio rewards according to the industry. High-tech manufacturing enterprises are rewarded at a rate not higher than 3% of the actual new foreign capital amount, with a maximum of not exceeding 150 million within the policy reward period.  

At the same time as external attraction, the self-cultivation of domestic enterprises is also very significant. Guangdong plans to select a number of high-quality biomedical enterprises for cultivation.   

The Action Plan proposes that by 2027, at least 15 enterprises with a scale of tens of billions of yuan will be cultivated and developed in the biomedical industry, forming a group of specialized, new, and unique enterprises in the field.

When accepting an interview with the SFC journalist, a representative of ‌Shenzhen Chipscreen Biosciences Co., Ltd expressed that as an enterprise focusing on the research and development of original new drugs, they paid attention to the Action Plan in promoting the conduct of clinical experiments of innovative drugs and devices by public hospitals. 

She explained the regulation not only includes the support of clinical trial institutions built by public hospitals in the performance assessment of public hospitals, but also supports the cooperation between public medical institutions in the province and enterprises to carry out real-world research on innovative drugs that have been listed, which can give full play to the advantages of Guangdong's medical resources and accelerate the collaborative transformation of corporate innovation achievements.