How the 'Greater Bay Area Pharma Valley' Attracted Over 540 Enterprises and Achieved Breakthrough Innovations

In recent years, bolstered by increasing policy and financial support, as well as a sustained rise in public health awareness, the life and health industry has emerged as a new driver of China’s economic development.

This is a track brimming with imagination and rife with endless challenges. As a crucial carrier and foundation for the development of the life and health industry, the ecosystem built by industrial parks plays a significant role in facilitating the establishment of high-quality enterprises, attracting entrepreneurial talent, and enhancing industrial competitive advantages. Therefore, promoting the continuous growth and expansion of the life and health industry amid new opportunities, and building world-class health economy industrial clusters, have become integral components of local strategies for developing the life and health sector.

As a key region for the health industry in China, Zhongshan not only radiates the unique charm of a Lingnan water town through its profound historical and cultural heritage and booming modern industrial development, but also shines brightly as a pioneer in health technology within the biopharmaceutical sector.

On July 26, the 30th Anniversary of the National Health Technology Industrial Base and the High-Quality Development Economic and Trade Conference was officially held at the Zhongshan Hot Spring Resort. The conference showcased the 30-year development journey of the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base, further driving the deepening of frontier innovation trends in biomedicine and promoting sustained exchange and cooperation within the biomedical industry.

On-Site of the 30th Anniversary of the National Health Technology Industrial Base and the High-Quality Development Economic and Trade Fair

After 30 years of development, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base has gathered more than 540 biopharmaceutical-related enterprises, including Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Akeso, Zhonghao Pharmaceutical, and Zehui Biologics. Many innovative pharmaceutical companies have achieved scientific and technological breakthroughs, progressing from “0 to 1” and from “1 to 10,” thereby presenting a “tiered” development pattern.

What exactly makes Zhongshan such a fertile ground for industrial development? More specifically, how has it strategically navigated this complex landscape?

As a highly talent- and technology-intensive industry, the biopharmaceutical sector possesses an inherent propensity for clustering. Although China’s exploration of biopharmaceutical industrial parks started later than that of developed countries in Europe and the United States, more than three decades of rapid development have enabled these parks to achieve a qualitative leap.

The past three decades of development in China’s biopharmaceutical industry have also been thirty years in which Zhongshan has continuously explored a path of innovation-driven growth.

Dating back to 1994, the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, the People's Government of Guangdong Province, and the People's Government of Zhongshan City jointly established the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base in Zhongshan. It is China’s first national-level comprehensive health industrial park built in accordance with internationally recognized GLP, GMP, and GSP standards, with a total planned area of 13.5 square kilometers.

However, at the inception of the base, the industry struggled to gain traction due to a near-total absence of scientific and technological resources and a lack of essential startup elements such as supportive policies, funding, and talent.

To solidify the industrial foundation, in 2000, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base proposed the concept that “preferential policies are no match for competitive advantages,” and proactively cultivated six key industrial strengths: a prime location, extensive industry information networks, efficient regulatory approval channels, a systematic pharmaceutical sales network, robust financing channels, and high-quality industrial parks. A unique service system and supporting facilities were rapidly established.

This policy initiative has brought new opportunities for the development of the life and health industry in the base. The successive establishment of companies such as Anshi Pharmaceutical, Sandoz, Jointown Pharmaceutical Group, and Juxiangyuan in the base is a testament to their confidence in its investment environment and supporting services.

Not only that, but Zhongshan has since made concerted efforts to attract high-growth enterprises and focus on clustering upstream and downstream sectors of the health and pharmaceutical industry. This strategy has not only fostered the agglomeration of a cohort of innovative companies—including Akeso Biopharma, Kangsheng Biologics, Jincheng Pharmaceutical, Ai Yi Life Sciences, Kangyuan Gene, Tengfei Gene, Laibor Ruichen, and Licheng Testing—but also established comprehensive industrial service platforms covering new drug R&D, inspection and testing, pilot-scale studies, GMP-compliant manufacturing, clinical trials, and financial capital. These measures have fully realized and leveraged the cluster effect of the healthcare industry, successfully “building the nest to attract the phoenix.”

The continuous emergence of innovative achievements and the accelerated aggregation of innovation factors in biomedicine are driving the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base to rapidly develop into a leading hub for life and health industry innovation in China.

Today, the base has become one of the most comprehensive health and pharmaceutical industrial parks in China, featuring a high degree of industrial agglomeration, the most complete industrial chain, and the richest industrial structure among similar parks nationwide. More than 540 big health enterprises have settled here, forming an industrial cluster dominated by biopharmaceuticals, medical devices, special foods and cosmetics, and health services.

According to reports, the base ranked fourth in Guangdong Province in the national biopharmaceutical park evaluation conducted by the China National Center for Biotechnology Development. It was twice named one of the “Top Ten National Biopharmaceutical Parks” by Bioon and Deloitte China. The base was also included in the Top 20 List of Key Industrial Parks in China, jointly released by the Chinese Society for Biotechnology and Firestone Creation, and was incorporated into Guangdong Province’s first batch of specialized industrial parks as well as the province’s Top Ten Industrial Characteristic Park Construction Projects.

At the new starting point of its 30th anniversary, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base is seizing the new opportunities presented by the construction of the Pearl River Estuary East-West Bank Integration and Reform Innovation Pilot Zone and the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, to build a new industrial development pattern of “One Base, Six Parks” and establish a premier domestic highland for health industry development.

With numerous biopharmaceutical industrial parks currently operating in China, professionalism and differentiation are crucial for standing out from the competition.

For the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base, multiple advantages—including policy support, talent, capital, and innovation platforms—have become the core elements driving industrial advancement.

First, in terms of policy, Zhongshan City’s relevant industrial policies include supportive provisions covering the implementation of key industrial projects, public service platforms, R&D and commercialization, licensing and certification, and medical-engineering integration. In conjunction with municipal-level policies, these measures provide strong support for new drug R&D and commercialization.

In terms of location, Zhongshan City is situated in the heart of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, with five major international airports and five major international ports within its one-hour living circle. With the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, universities and research institutions on the eastern bank of the Pearl River Estuary will engage in closer collaboration with the Zhongshan Institute for Pharmaceutical Innovation in the future.

In terms of talent, the base has attracted a large number of outstanding high-level leading talents and innovative research teams to settle in. Currently, it hosts 3 academician workstations, 3 provincial-level innovation teams, and 25 municipal-level innovation teams. Additionally, it has established 1 National-Local Joint Engineering Research Center, 3 branch laboratories of State Key Laboratories, and 2 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratories. The Zhongshan Institute for Drug Innovation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, a new-type R&D institution built by the Zhongshan Municipal People's Government in 2018, has formed 47 leading talent teams and carries out joint graduate training with 33 universities and institutions, including China Pharmaceutical University, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, and the University of Macau. The scale of graduate student training has exceeded 600.

In terms of funding, Zhongshan is a fertile ground for investment in the Greater Bay Area, with its biomedical industry highly favored by investors. Meanwhile, Zhongshan stands as one of the most dynamic regions for the private economy within the Greater Bay Area. It has established a multi-tiered capital system comprising government-guided funds, policy-oriented equity funds, and social capital, and plans to launch a biomedical industry fund with a scale exceeding RMB 10 billion. This multi-level financing system addresses funding challenges at various stages of corporate development, facilitates the continuous influx of innovative and high-growth enterprises, and injects vitality into the development of Zhongshan’s biomedical and health industries.

Most importantly, in terms of innovation platforms, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base has established a public service support system covering the entire industry chain. This includes three mature Contract Research Organization (CRO) platforms, five Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) platforms, six Marketing Authorization Holder (MAH) platforms, three animal experimentation platforms, and six testing and inspection platforms, providing enterprises with one-stop professional services spanning R&D, pilot-scale trials, animal studies, testing and inspection, and commercial production.

Within a 3-kilometer radius of the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base, one can find an industrial innovation system that covers the entire process from R&D, pilot-scale testing, inspection and testing, achievement transformation, capital and finance, incubation and acceleration, standardized production, to efficient distribution. It also hosts a series of innovation and entrepreneurship incubation platforms and industrialization carriers, including the National-Level Pharmaceutical Technology Incubator (Bay Area Pharma Valley No. 1), GMP-compliant facilities in the Smart Health Town, and the Intelligent Medical Device Innovation Park (Bay Area Pharma Valley No. 2). This multi-tiered, comprehensive incubation and acceleration system will facilitate the rapid growth of enterprises.

Such rapid industrial response and robust supporting service capabilities are the result of 30 years of continuous accumulation by the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base. From the perspective of resident enterprises, these advantages will provide comprehensive empowerment, including infrastructure support, professional service support, innovation and collaboration opportunities, as well as policy and financial support. This will help improve operational efficiency, management standards, and competitiveness, thereby promoting sustainable development for enterprises.

It is evident that Zhongshan has laid a solid foundation for the development of the regional biopharmaceutical industry, with robust support from policy, platforms, funding, and infrastructure.

Leveraging multiple advantages, an increasing number of enterprises are utilizing industrial parks to achieve “overtaking on a bend.” Among them, Akeso’s two independently developed, globally first-in-class bispecific antibodies have been approved for market launch, setting a new record for Chinese pharmaceutical “going global” transactions. Zhouling Medical has developed China’s first interventional medical device for pulsed field ablation in the treatment of chronic bronchitis phenotype COPD, filling a domestic gap in this field. Kangsheng Biotech, as the first company in China to simultaneously possess a commercial host cell line development system and animal cell culture media, along with R&D and large-scale production services for biopharmaceutical CDMO, has resolved critical bottlenecks in the domestic protein and antibody drug sector. Furthermore, Fanen Biotechnology’s global first TAL cell therapy has received implicit approval for clinical trials, among other achievements.

Moreover, the advantages and services of the National Health Technology Industrial Base have facilitated the achievement of multiple “world-first” and “China-first” innovations. Currently, the base hosts over 94 pharmaceutical R&D pipelines, with nearly 30 Class 1 new drugs under development; it also maintains more than 190 medical device R&D pipelines, has commercialized over 55 Class III medical devices, and seen 18 drug varieties included in the national centralized procurement program, thereby further strengthening its capabilities in the translation and industrialization of pharmaceutical innovations.

An examination of these projects reveals a common characteristic: a focus on niche sectors and pioneering technologies, dedicated to addressing unmet clinical needs and tackling the critical challenges and pain points within specific indications. The innovation philosophy and “long-termism” underpinning this approach reflect a shared understanding between the resident enterprises and the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base.

It is reported that Zhongshan is vigorously promoting the renovation and upgrading of inefficient industrial parks to further expand industrial space. The innovative service system is continuously being deepened and expanded, which will facilitate the emergence of more innovative achievements and accelerate their industrialization.

The Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base is vigorously constructing industrial facilities to attract a cohort of high-quality projects. The “Bay Area Pharma Valley,” located at the Torch High-Tech Zone exit of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, will be developed into the most distinctive and largest platform for new drug innovation and development in Zhongshan City and even across the western bank of the Pearl River Delta. The former Raw Material Drug Port in the Shazai area of Minzhong will provide over 1,000 mu of scarce M3-class land, meeting the land requirements for pilot-scale testing and industrialization of pharmaceutical active ingredients, intermediates, synthetic biology products, and cell and gene therapy products.

In the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Collaborative Innovation Zone, Zhongshan is closely aligning with Shenzhen’s biomedical industry resources to build a biomedical industrial park. It focuses on niche sectors such as the R&D of intelligent medical devices and high-end interventional consumables, as well as CXO platforms and MAH (Marketing Authorization Holder) platforms, while actively undertaking the transfer of Shenzhen’s medical device industry.

At the Economic and Trade Fair, 11 major health industry projects attracted by the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base were signed and launched, including two projects with investments exceeding RMB 1 billion each and three projects with investments of RMB 500 million each, bringing the total investment to RMB 6 billion. Additionally, 10 startups founded by high-level talents were introduced, five industrial service platforms were established through cooperation, and four investment funds focusing on the biopharmaceutical sector were signed, with a total fund size of RMB 4.1 billion.

Signing of the Settlement Project

At the conference, Zhongshan Torch High-Tech Industrial Development Zone and Guangdong Science & Technology Financial Group signed a strategic agreement. The two parties will jointly establish the Yueke Torch Venture Capital Alliance and carry out in-depth cooperation in areas such as building roadshow platforms, promoting investment exchanges, co-developing high-tech industrial parks, empowering enterprises for public listings, and recommending listing candidates.

As a dialogue platform established by Zhongshan to facilitate exhibitions, promotions, and collaborative partnerships for biopharmaceutical enterprises, the conference will further accelerate the cultivation of the Greater Bay Area’s “industrial network.” Leveraging this Economic and Trade Fair as an opportunity, and with the opening of the Shenzhen-Zhongshan Link, Zhongshan’s biopharmaceutical and health industry is drawing nationwide attention and aggregating essential development resources. The Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base is firmly aligning with the overarching directions and trends of global biopharmaceutical industry development, strengthening forward-looking strategic planning, and actively promoting the deep integration of innovation, industrial, capital, talent, and spatial chains. It is making every effort to expedite the establishment of Zhongshan as a new highland for the biopharmaceutical industry in the Greater Bay Area.

Over the past 30 years, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base has continuously explored and evolved, transforming from farmland and banana plantations into a leading domestic comprehensive health industrial park characterized by modern factory buildings.

This Economic and Trade Fair serves as a summary of the achievements of the past 30 years and marks a fresh start for the next 30 years.

Looking to the future, the Zhongshan National Health Technology Industrial Base will expand its area to 30 square kilometers, focusing on the “4+4” industrial directions. It will concentrate on advantageous sectors such as biological drugs, chemical drugs, modern traditional Chinese medicine, and medical devices, as well as emerging fields including cell and gene therapy, synthetic biology, brain science, and radiopharmaceuticals, thereby further fostering new quality productive forces.