Prospects of Domestic Substitution and Global Expansion: China's Life Science Tools Industry

Over the two-year pandemic, import and export trade slowed, and supply chain issues became prominent.

Most people may not have felt the impact of import and export trade on their daily lives, but in industries that were previously highly dependent on imports, the disruption of critical raw material supplies has nearly choked their operations. The biopharmaceutical sector within the medical industry is a typical example. To ensure product quality, biopharmaceutical and in vitro diagnostics (IVD) companies rely almost entirely on imported comprehensive production solutions, ranging from instruments and equipment to reagents and consumables. During the pandemic, imports suddenly shifted from an advantage to a liability, revealing hidden vulnerabilities that had been embedded during the industry’s rapid growth.

Domestic substitution has quickly become the central theme in the life sciences tools sector. Whether pursuing comprehensive replacement or securing backup suppliers, biopharmaceutical and IVD companies are actively seeking domestically produced solutions. It has been two to three years since the concept of localizing upstream raw materials, equipment, and consumables for the biopharmaceutical industry was first proposed. In addition to the strong stock performance and robust revenue figures reported by listed companies, domestic startups have recently achieved frequent breakthroughs.

LePure Biotech, a leading Chinese enterprise in biomedical consumables, has launched its independently developed LePhinix™ single-use bioreactors and LeKrius™ biopharmaceutical process films, addressing two major technological bottlenecks in China’s biomedical supply chain. This marks a groundbreaking step toward the localization of single-use technologies across the entire production workflow for advanced therapies, including antibodies, vaccines, cell therapies, and mRNA-based treatments. As one of the key raw materials in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, culture media present significant technical challenges during development. Extensive experience and technological expertise are required to evaluate the effects of various media components on cell lines, ultimately achieving efficient biopharmaceutical production. Although Chinese culture media companies have begun to scale up, they remain in the early stages of development compared with global industry giants.

Riding the wind, China’s domestic life science tools industry is gaining momentum across a range of products, including enzymes, antigens and antibodies, chromatography resins, bioreactors, and culture media. Seizing this opportunity, we have decided to delve deeply into this topic.The “Life Science Tools” Forum, hosted by VCBeat, VB100, and VCBeat New Medicine, and co-hosted by Legend Capital,Invite industry experts, leading enterprises, and investment institutions to comprehensively discuss current trends in the industry ecosystem from multiple perspectives, centering on the “localization of life science tools.” This initiative aims to deepen academic exchange and cooperation in the fields of life sciences and public health, promote interdisciplinary integration and development, and foster collaboration across upstream and downstream industries.

Let’s unveil the forum highlights in advance, with discussions centered on the following hot topics:

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Life Science Tools Forum

Forum Time: Morning of June 16, 2022

Forum Organizers: VB100, VCBeat, VCBeat Orange, Eggshell Institute, VCBeat New Medicine

Co-organized by:Legend Capital

09:00-09:20

The Rapid Development of Biopharmaceuticals and the Continuous Improvement of Process Solutions

Wang Feng | Co-founder and CEO of PureBio

09:20-09:40

Featured CDMO Efficiently Empowers Biopharmaceuticals

Li Haoqiang | Co-founder and Chairman, Haoyang Biotech

09:40-10:00

The Path to Domestic Production of High-End Cell Culture Media in the Biopharmaceutical Industry

Wang Yantao | Chairman and CEO of Maibang Bio

10:00-10:40

Roundtable with Industry Leaders: The Pace and Path of Localizing the Biopharmaceutical Supply Chain

Moderator: Yang Shujun | Investment Director, Legend Capital

Jiang Biwang | Chairman of Nanomicro Technology

Ding Jianling | CSO, PureBio

Cao Liang | CEO of Aiweituo

Wang Yantao | Chairman and CEO of Maibang Bio

10:40-11:00

Exploiting deep tech for health

Peter Peumans | CTO, Life Sciences, imec

11:00-11：20

The Journey and Outlook of Domestic Life Science Reagent Enterprises

Zhang Jie | General Manager of Sino Biological

11:20-12：00

The Rise of China's Life Science Tools Industry

Moderator: Liu Haitao | Investment Director, Legend Capital

Zhang Jie | General Manager, Sino Biological

Huang Weihua | Founder of Yeasen Biotechnology

Cheng Peng | Founder of Caike Biotech

Zhang Han | Founder of Hanchen Guangyi

Xu Hongyu | Marketing Director, Dalong Instruments