On January 12^th and 13^th, 2021, the 2021 China BioMed Forum, co-hosted by China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association (PhIRDA) and iMeta Health Information Consulting, was successfully held virtually, attracting more than 100000 viewers.

The forum was hosted by Hu Xuefeng, Secretary-General of PhIRDA Pharmaceutical Innovation Investment Specialty Committee. Song Ruilin, Executive President of PhIRDA, delivered a keynote speech on “Pharmaceutical Innovation Development in China”. At present, China's pharmaceutical innovation has stepped into the second tier in global pharmaceutical innovation, from “Imitate” to “Parallel, and struggle to “Innovate”. With the favorable policies and financial support, China has witnessed rapid development of biopharmaceutical industry, but still facing great challenges. Dr. Song pointed out that “New changes are emerging in the global biopharmaceutical industry after the pandemic. As the main theme of the development of China's biopharmaceutical industry, innovation and upgrading have been facilitated, from me-too to original approach. China’s biopharmaceutical industry is running under two driving factors: one is the internal cycle of policy support, original innovation and industry upgrading, the other is the external cycle of bringing in financial capital and innovative enterprises going out globally. Empowered by financial support, pharmaceutical innovation has stepped into a fast track.”

According to Dr. Song, to improve the pharmaceutical innovation system in China, it is important to build a value-oriented and patient-centered co-governance. In the future, we look forward to cooperating with global pharmaceutical innovators and investors, to develop better technology and high-quality innovative drugs in China to meet global health needs.

This forum invited KOLs in the pharmaceutical industry and investment field to share opinions on hot topics including “Trends of Pharmaceutical Investment & Cooperation in China” and “Trends and Challenges of Pharmaceutical Innovation Development in China” in multiple angles and levels.

The first panel "Trends of Pharmaceutical Investment & Cooperation in China" was moderated by Houston Huang, Managing Director, Head of China Global Investment Banking at J.P. Morgan, and participated by Wu Xiaobin, General Manager of China & President of BeiGene, Nisa Leung, Managing Partner of Qiming Venture Partners, Fang Min, Managing Director & Head of Healthcare Investment of Warburg Pincus and Zhang Dan, Co-Founder & Chief Strategy Officer of ClinChoice. In 2020, the outbreak of the COVID-19 accelerated the R&D of new drugs and vaccines, and technologies, which also brought more changes to the industry and facing both opportunities and challenges. Now, the investment in new drugs in China is highly homogeneous, and over-valuation of innovative pharmaceutical companies is turning massive capital investments worthless in the short time. The panelists agreed that how to make true differentiated competition, focus on long-term positive aspects and objective evaluation of each project are the main topics for the future innovation investment.

The second panel “Trends and Challenges of Pharmaceutical Innovation Development in China” was moderated by Darren Cai, Founder & Managing Partner of Sherpa Venture Capital, and participated by Leon Wang, Executive Vice President, International & China President of AstraZeneca, James Li, Co-Founder, Chairman & CEO of JW Therapeutics, Sheng Zelin, Chairman of the Board & CEO of Suzhou Zelgen Biopharmaceuticals, Lawrence Tian, Founding Partner of YuanMing Capital and Kevin Li, Managing Partner of LYZZ Capital. For the trend of pharmaceutical innovation in ChinA in the next few years, the panelists believed that, due to the rise of the leading pharmaceutical enterprises and increasing solid foundation, domestic innovation ecosystem “policy-research-payment” was formed tentatively. With upgrading of pharmaceutical industry, more and more excellent innovative pharmaceutical enterprises would be recognized in global market. New drugs developed in China will gradually approved and in the market, benefiting more people. It has reached a major breakthrough in cell therapy and gene therapy for solid tumors, narrowing the gap with global frontier standard. Besides, the combination of drugs and medical devices will also be a trend of biopharmaceutical innovation and development in China. In the past, the competition among Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises mainly focus on sales capacity, but in the future, it will shift to the product R&D. No doubt that those with more new drugs and indications will grasp more opportunities.

The forum also selected 12 high-quality pharmaceutical innovative projects, demonstrating the achievements of pharmaceutical innovation to domestic and foreign investors and entrepreneurs, and promoting international cooperation in the field of pharmaceutical innovation. The projects covered new drug R&D and treatment in the field of tumor immunity and immune diseases, systemic lupus erythematosus, chronic hepatitis B, bone tissue repair and regeneration, gastric cancer, androgen receptor (AR) related disease etc. From the core technology concept of pharmaceutical giants to the firm determination to explore pharmaceutical innovation by biopharmaceutical companies, 2021 China BioMed Forum has presented a technological gala in the new market pattern.