China Series: Entering the Pharmaceutical Industry in China

China Series: Entering the Pharmaceutical Industry in China

3/5/2021 12:00:00 AM

TusPark UK presented the second workshop in its China Series—Life Science Edition that focuses on helping UK Life Sciences companies enter the Chinese market. The event was themed on accessing the Pharmaceutical industry in China, and co-hosted with award-winning law film King & Wood Mallesons (KWM) and P4 – the Precision Healthcare accelerator by Capital Enterprise and its partners, such as UCL Partners (the largest and main innovation platform of the NHS), Nuffield Health, NHS Barts (the largest NHS Trust in the UK) and more.

Here are highlights from the workshop:

 

 

Colin Tan, Director of Operations at TusPark UK, presented the “China-UK Innovation Centre”, based in Beijing, which provides a physical base to UK companies, as well as sign-posting companies to various corporate services. The Centre soft-lands and networks companies into China through TUS’s own partners, nearly 300 bases plus portfolio companies. He spoke about how TusPark UK gives companies, and guides them through, an immediate “network of networks” so that they can successfully navigate China and grow.

 

 

Jun Xu, General Manager at Shenzhen Pharmacin Co. Ltd., gave advice to UK companies on which parts of China to base themselves in depending on whether they were a cost-driven, market-driven or innovation-driven company. For instance, she explained, innovation-driven companies might like to be based in locations with strong academic institutions and a good VC ecosystem such as Beijing, Shenzhen, Suzhou, and Shanghai. Mrs Xu also spoke about Pharmacin’s present work, such as its work in the US, where Pharmacin also has a base.

 

 

Dave Madge, VP of Research Science Division of WuXi AppTec also spoke about their company’s work in the UK and its focus on the 4D’s: Digital, Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics. WuXi AppTec is one of the largest contract research organizations (CRO) in the world, and is actively working with UK companies.

 

 

Chandler Chen, Director of Digital and Commercial Innovation at I-Campus in AstraZeneca, spoke about how AstraZeneca, itself a UK company, had settled in China and now has a network of 6 campuses which are specially designed to incubate life science companies from the UK. The cities where these campuses are located are Beijing, Shanghai, Wuxi, Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hangzhou. UK companies would be plugged into a life science partner and investment network, which includes organisations like Baidu Ventures, Legend Capital, Qiming, and CICC.

 

 

Mike Wang, Partner of KWM, shared the best-practices for UK companies going to China, and suggestions for understanding all aspects of your business partner, so that you can work well together. KWM had worked with AstraZeneca in China to support its growth. Mike also shared statistics and strategies in regards to IP protection, noting from the data that litigation has been favouring Western companies.

 

 

Abel Ureta-Vidal, Investment Director of CMS Ventures, a corporate venture arm of China Medical System (CMS), spoke from his base in Cambridge. CMS Ventures are early-stage investors, also with the 4D’s as priorities. Abel talked about the network of resources that CMS would present its portfolio companies, which made it a good strategic industry to partner with for a UK company.

 

• TusPark UK
• TusPark China
• Access to China
• Life Science & Healthcare