Jianqiang Weiyeh's "Product+ Service+" Dual-Engine Model Solves Supply Chain Challenges and Builds an Integrated Scientific Research Service System

In recent years, research funding in the global life sciences sector has maintained steady growth.Investment in basic research is closely correlated with the development of the scientific services industry; the year-on-year increase in research funding at domestic academic and research institutions is expected to drive market demand for research reagents, instruments, and laboratory consumables.According to calculations by Everbright Securities, the market size of China's scientific research services industry on the researcher side is expected to increase from RMB 52.9 billion in 2020 to RMB 135 billion in 2030.

Scientific research service providers primarily produce and sell products such as research reagents, scientific instruments, and laboratory consumables, while also providing supporting technical solutions. Their downstream customers include academic users (such as research universities and government-affiliated research institutions) and industrial users (including pharmaceutical companies, food enterprises, new material manufacturers, and modern agricultural businesses). In fact, these providers are not merely upstream suppliers; they also assist downstream clients in achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvements in R&D and production activities, thereby helping customers significantly save time, costs, and effort associated with conducting experiments.

Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Stronger Science”) is a high-tech enterprise dedicated to providing comprehensive solutions for scientific research. Integrating flexible R&D, lean manufacturing, collaborative innovation, and efficient operations, the company offers a complete one-stop scientific research service system for fields such as biomedicine, fine chemicals, modern agriculture, germplasm screening, environmental protection, disease prevention, aerospace, and new materials, serving as an advocate and pioneer of the holistic laboratory service concept.

It is reported that Beijing Stronger Science Co.,Ltd. holds the “National High-Tech Enterprise Certificate” and the “Zhongguancun High-Tech Enterprise Certificate,” and has been consecutively recognized for multiple years as a “Gazelle Enterprise” in the National High-Tech Industrial Development Zone and as a Beijing “Specialized, Refined, Differential, and Innovative” (SRDI) enterprise.

According to Gao Jian, General Manager of Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.: In 2012, Gao Jian began leading his team to explore a business model for the full-category supply of scientific research supplies. He and his team aimed to build aProfessional Scientific Research Service Provider。

Around 2010, China’s scientific research services industry was still in its nascent stage due to its short development history. Industry demand was fragmented, with a vast number of product SKUs (Stock Keeping Units), yet low purchase frequency, characterized primarily by small-batch, high-variety orders. Meanwhile, there was a severe lack of industry services; customers mainly relied on foreign literature or imported brand catalog numbers to identify products, lacking access to selection guidance, recommendations for experimental directions, and constructive advice during experimental procedures.

On the other hand, national investment in research and development (R&D) has seen significant growth. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that the growth rate has remained basically at around 10%, with the R&D intensity required to reach 2%-3% of GDP.

However, the scientific research services industry is more insular compared to the traditional civilian sector. At that time, China’s basic scientific research field was relatively narrow and cutting-edge, and the process from theoretical breakthroughs to technological translation, application of results, and finally commercialization was lengthy. The target customers of Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. were mostly top Chinese scientists, including researchers at the academician level. They would personally call the company to inquire about products and source laboratory supplies while conducting experiments in their labs, which significantly consumed their time and energy. Recognizing this pain point, Gao Jian’s team was deeply concerned and committed to changing this status quo.

Between 2012 and 2015, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. gradually explored its development direction, beginning to exert efforts simultaneously in both products and services, thereby establishing the foundation for determining“Product + Service +” Business Strategy. From 2015 to 2018, another three years were spent developing proprietary intellectual property rights forSparrow Internal Management Systemand establishedThe First Self-Owned Brand—STEEMA. It is worth noting that this process aligns closely with the timeline of the development of China’s internet and e-commerce sectors.

Around 2015, China’s internet economy experienced robust growth. Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. sought to leverage the advantages of the internet to present the industry’s complex product offerings to customers in a more convenient and efficient manner. The company initially developed version 1.0 of its internal “Sparrow” system to manage customer relationships and synchronize operational data with internal management processes. This initiative enhanced internal operational efficiency while improving response time and accuracy in customer-facing services, yielding results that exceeded expectations.

Based on these circumstances, Beijing Stronger Science Co.,Ltd. has determined the feasibility of its “Product + Service+” business strategy. On the product side,STEEMA, which focuses on general consumables, instruments, and reagents in the biological field, and FUSION, which serves the fine chemical field with general consumables, instruments, and reagents., two proprietary brands were successively launched into the market. On the service side, the company adheres to a customer-centric philosophy dedicated to resolving client challenges, focusing not only on product sales but also on addressing customers’ experimental pain points and extended needs, providing support and assistance to the best of its ability.

Over time, the company began to extend its internal Sparrow system to the e-commerce brand Mr. Nuo Mall. This allows customers to query both the company’s own branded products and well-known products from strategic partners on the mall platform, while also achieving integration of front-end and back-end information chains, thereby improving service efficiency and accuracy.

Alongside decades of development in China’s scientific research sector, the Chinese research services market has exhibited dual drivers of scale expansion and domestic substitution. Taking 2024 data as an example, R&D expenditure is projected to reach RMB 3.6 trillion; however, many needs at the basic research level remain urgently unmet. For instance, certain research supplies still rely on imports, which are plagued by high prices, slow delivery, and unstable supply chains.

Gao Jian told VCBeat that Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has adhered from the outset to a business philosophy oriented toward solving customer challenges. For instance, in response to widespread customer feedback about the high cost of imported products, the company committed itself to the research and development of domestic alternatives. Meanwhile, Gao Jian pointed out that customers’ heavy reliance on imported brands essentially stems from their pursuit of product quality, with batch-to-batch consistency being the key determinant of quality. Therefore, Beijing Stronger Science initially adopted the quality system establishment methodologies of imported brands and built its own quality management system accordingly, thereby addressing the issue of product quality stability.

As market demands evolve, customers’ requirements for specialized and personalized services have become increasingly prominent. From laboratory construction and instrument maintenance to laboratory operations, renovation, and disinfection, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has closely followed this development trend and gradually established a portfolio of related businesses. In recent years, with deepening industry insights, the company has also pursued vertical specialization in sectors with long-term growth potential, aligning this business strategy closely with its own corporate development.

Currently, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.’s business layout encompasses both online and offline channels, and has developed STEEMA, FUSION, and Mr. Nuo Mall.

STEEMA positions its products as general-purpose consumables, instruments, and biological reagents for the life sciences sector. Leveraging the company’s robust data accumulation, precise industry analysis, and ISO-certified quality management system, STEEMA develops and manufactures cost-effective research supplies. The current STEEMA product portfolio includes small-scale instruments, various containers, cell culture products, sample analysis tools, and low-temperature sample storage solutions.

Figure: STEEMA’s Featured Star Products

FUSION, a reagent brand under Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd., is designed to meet the demand for fine chemicals across diverse varieties and specifications. Its product portfolio spans synthetic building blocks, synthetic reagents, biochemical reagents, chromatography solvents, deuterated reagents, and materials science reagents. Leveraging a professional R&D team and global supplier resources, FUSION enhances product standardization and shipping efficiency, empowering scientific research through its specialized services and self-operated e-commerce platform, Mr. Nuo Mall.

Figure: Featured Products from FUSION

It is worth noting that, in terms of quality, in addition to adhering to strict criteria for selecting raw material suppliers and maintaining a comprehensive quality testing system to ensure product integrity, Fuzhen also offers customized synthesis services, with packaging specifications ranging from milligrams to kilograms.

The establishment of Mr. Nuo's Mall aims to build self-owned channels and maximize the "high efficiency" characteristic of Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.All research supplies offered on the platform are carefully selected star brands and high-quality products, based on the company’s over a decade of data accumulation and analysis. These products cover fields such as life sciences, fine chemicals, laboratory analysis, safety protection, and general-purpose items.

Figure: Nuoxiansheng Mall Page

Furthermore, Mr. Nuo’s Mall provides convenient online consultation and appointment channels for various routine laboratory needs, with services including: laboratory construction and relocation, warehousing services, third-party testing agency services, cleaning and disinfection, as well as certification, maintenance, calibration, disassembly/assembly, and relocation of instruments and equipment.

Gao Jian candidly admitted that the journey of building their own brand was far from smooth. Industry barriers, particularly cognitive barriers, posed a significant challenge in the process of domestic substitution. Taking Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.’s compound library screening project as an example, the vast number of samples made efficient and precise retrieval during storage and access a major difficulty. However, due to the lack of relevant domestic products at the time, the company had to import sample bottles with scanning capabilities from abroad to address this predicament.

Amid growing customer demand and the imperative for cost control, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. decided to pursue technological development and breakthroughs domestically. The entire process, spanning approximately three years, covered raw material procurement, technical development plan design, testing and standardization, and industrial-scale production. It involved extensive detailed work, including factory visits and consultations with industry experts. The R&D efforts ultimately succeeded, and the product gained widespread recognition from customers after its market launch.

It is worth noting that the technological breakthroughs achieved by Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. are driven by customer needs. Gao Jian pointed out, “When customers present challenging requirements, the company must continuously engage in research and development, communicate with clients, and identify innovative solutions to meet these demands and enhance its operations. Such R&D breakthroughs are closely aligned with market and industry needs.”

This market-aligned philosophy is also reflected in the product selection logic of Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.

In recent years, with the rapid development of the cell and gene therapy (CGT) sector, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has kept pace with the times by gradually increasing its investment in the life sciences field and prioritizing the research and development of biological reagent products.

Taking the iPSC (induced pluripotent stem cell) culture media products under the STEEMA brand as an example, most iPSC culture media currently rely on imports. In terms of product performance, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd.’s iPSC culture media improves cell proliferation efficiency by approximately 20% compared to commonly used imported media, while reducing costs by approximately 30%.

Figure: Human Pluripotent Stem Cell Culture Medium

Furthermore, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has concurrently developed complementary products for this culture medium, such as cryopreservation solutions, buffers, matrix gels, and dissociation reagents, thereby creating a highly compatible product portfolio. This enables customers to obtain comprehensive, high-stability services from Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. alone. The advantage of this integrated product development strategy is a prominent highlight of the company’s iPSC culture medium series and a microcosm of its business philosophy.

 Figure: Buffers and Culture Media

Gao Jian specifically pointed out that Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. will continue to focus on achieving breakthroughs in specific vertical niches, such as biological reagents, glassware, filters, cell culture consumables, and new materials, before gradually expanding into other areas, thereby advancing the process of import substitution.

To this end, Beijing Stronger Science Co.,Ltd. will exert efforts from multiple aspects:Strengthen R&D investment by channeling business profits into product development and optimization, thereby enhancing the stability of product quality.Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has established its First Life Sciences R&D Center in Beijing and its First Fine Chemicals R&D Center in Jinan, Shandong Province. In the near future, the company will establish a Second Life Sciences R&D Center focused on the development of biological reagent series, along with supporting pilot-scale production bases and quality control centers, laying a solid foundation for obtaining GMP certification and entering the industrial sector.

In terms of business layout, Beijing Stronger Science Co.,Ltd. plans"Gradually increase the business share of two independent brands year by year.". In fact, since its establishment in 2012, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. has accumulated a substantial volume of valid data through external systems and self-developed systems, leveraging this foundation for data analysis to support corporate decision-making and rigorous product selection.

In the next phase, Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. will leverage AI technology to enhance the efficiency of business promotion and product research and development. By continuously refining algorithms that align with industry patterns, the company can gain insights into customers’ research directions and intelligently recommend products that better meet their needs, allowing customers to simply make selections without spending excessive time on product characteristics and specifications.

“Import substitution for scientific research reagents, instruments, and laboratory consumables is an inevitable trend; core technologies must be held in our own hands.” Gao Jian further emphasized: “Many well-known brands in the industry excel in both corporate operations and product development. Beijing Stronger Science Co., Ltd. holds them in high regard and remains committed to continuous learning. Scientists, research service providers, and all industry practitioners should maintain an objective and calm attitude, join forces, and reduce internal friction within the industry, thereby contributing to the advancement of China’s scientific research endeavors.”