Tee Labs, a Biopharmaceutical Innovation Incubator by Taifu Bio, Officially Launches in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Science City

On September 16, Tee Labs, a biopharmaceutical innovation incubator managed by Shanghai Taifu Biotechnology, held its opening ceremony. Located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai, the incubator is dedicated to building an international innovation service platform for the biopharmaceutical industry. It provides comprehensive support to startups, including R&D facilities, supply chain services, operational management, and investment and financing assistance, working alongside entrepreneurs to develop breakthrough technologies and products that improve human health.

At the opening ceremony, Ms. Fu Jun, Deputy Director of the Zhangjiang Administration of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone; Dr. Ma Jing, Chairman of the Scientific Committee of Taifu Capital; and Dr. Ni Lin, Senior Partner at Taifu Capital and General Manager of Taifu Incubator, delivered remarks. Guests from the venture capital and corporate sectors, including representatives from Fudan University, Zhangjiang Group, Shanghai Zhangjiang High-Tech Venture Service Center, Zhangjiang Sci-Tech Investment, Qiming Venture Partners, Hillhouse Capital, and Temasek China, attended the event.

Ms. Fu Jun, Deputy Director of the Zhangjiang Administration Bureau of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, pointed out that Zhangjiang has already provided substantial support for biomedical innovation in terms of both physical infrastructure and institutional frameworks. In the future, Pudong New Area will further deepen its legislative efforts in the biomedical sector, and is currently collaborating with relevant customs authorities to study optimizations of import and export regulations. It is hoped that a steady stream of new enterprises will be established in incubators, achieve rapid growth, and go public at an early stage.

 Address by Ms. Fu Jun, Deputy Director of the Zhangjiang Administration Bureau of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone

Dr. Ma Jing, a toxicology expert and Chairman of the Scientific Committee at Taifu Capital, has witnessed the growth of Taifu Capital over the years. Scientists embark on innovation with little more than their backpacks, requiring support from the government, funds, and the industry. The asset-light R&D model, which combines venture capital, intellectual property, and CRO (Contract Research Organization) outsourcing, is demonstrating its advantages in efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Tee Labs is precisely aligning itself with this evolution in the biopharmaceutical industry. It is hoped that more pharmaceutical unicorns will emerge from Zhangjiang, enabling Chinese patients to access domestically developed medicines.

 Address by Dr. Ma Jing, Toxicology Expert and Chair of the Scientific Committee at Taifu Capital

Dr. Ni Lin, Senior Partner at Taifu Capital, believes that with advances in life sciences and the deepening application of computer science and digitalization, R&D in biopharmaceuticals and biotechnology is gradually transitioning from the era of artisanal science to one of engineering and industrialization. This will be an industrial revolution that creates life, making the world more vibrant, prosperous, and thriving. She explains the significance of the name “Tee Labs”: A tee is the small stand used to hold a golf ball before a drive; the startups incubated are like golf balls poised to head toward the future and the global stage, while Tee Labs serves as the small yet sturdy T-shaped support that underpins them.

 Address by Dr. Ni Lin, Senior Partner at Taifu Capital

Tee Labs was established with strong support from Wu Qiang, Deputy District Mayor of Pudong New Area in Shanghai, and the Shanghai Zhangjiang Science City Construction and Management Office. Leveraging Taifu Capital’s ecosystem resources in the biopharmaceutical industry, Tee Labs is independently operated and managed by Taifu Pharmaceutical Technology, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Taifu Capital. Focused on serving early-stage innovative projects in the biopharmaceutical sector, the incubator has developed a modern, international innovation space spanning 2,500 square meters. It features specialized platforms including molecular biology laboratories, chemistry laboratories, cell culture laboratories, microscopy imaging laboratories, and Biosafety Level 2 (BSL-2) laboratories. This infrastructure enables Tee Labs to provide resident enterprises with comprehensive support encompassing workspace, investment, incubation, and R&D services.

In addition to providing laboratory space, Tee Labs offers over 200 types of general-purpose instruments for incubated companies to use, including -80°C freezers, multichannel pipettes, PCR systems, and electrophoretic transfer units, among many other small-scale devices, truly enabling a “move-in ready” laboratory experience. It is also equipped with more than ten types of specialized and high-throughput equipment available as shared resources, such as Biacore systems, refrigerated high-speed centrifuges, LTQ liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) systems, the QPix high-throughput microbial colony picking system, the FLIPR high-throughput CCD fluorescence imaging analyzer, flow cytometers, fluorescence microscopes, high-throughput nucleic acid workstations, MSD ultra-sensitive electrochemiluminescence detection platforms, and large liquid nitrogen storage tanks. Leveraging its high-quality service ecosystem, Tee Labs has attracted several premium enterprises since its trial operation phase and is emerging as a new hub for nurturing biopharmaceutical companies in Zhangjiang.

The first batch of companies to settle in includes Shanghai Beikan Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shuodi Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Yousen Jianheng Biopharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., and several other enterprises.

In the future, Tee Labs is committed to growing alongside entrepreneurs, building a top-tier incubator in China, and accelerating innovation in the biotechnology sector.

At the opening ceremony, guest representatives cut the ribbon to launch the incubator, marking the official commencement of operations for Tee Labs.

 Guests and Representatives Cut the Ribbon to Launch the Incubator

Dr. Raymond Stevens, founder of Shanghai BeiKan Biotechnology Co., Ltd. and the iHuman Institute at ShanghaiTech University, representing the first cohort of settled enterprises, delivered a company presentation.

Tee Labs is an industry incubator wholly owned and independently operated by Taifu Capital, dedicated to frontier medical fields such as new drug R&D, diagnostics, and personalized medicine, including AI and digital solutions. By providing comprehensive support encompassing R&D facility assistance, corporate functional services, supply chain integration, and financial backing, Tee Labs deeply empowers startup teams and accelerates their R&D processes. The laboratories are equipped with basic general-purpose experimental instruments and a shared equipment platform, significantly shortening the initial preparation phase for startups in terms of space and equipment, thereby enabling them to focus on core R&D activities.

Taifu Capital, established in 2014, is a venture capital firm focused on the life sciences sector, primarily investing in high-potential early-stage and growth-stage companies. Through diversified and strategic positioning and by selecting high-quality partners, Taifu Capital aims to seize opportunities amid the rapid development of life sciences in China. The investment team brings years of experience and industry resources in these fields, with the goal of achieving rapid growth alongside its portfolio companies.

Basecamp Bio

Beikan Biology is a technology platform company with unique expertise and analytical capabilities in next-generation structure-based drug discovery, enabling it to address the most challenging protein targets, including membrane proteins, protein–protein interactions, and other difficult targets in drug discovery. Leveraging a robust technological platform that integrates experimental biophysics with state-of-the-art computational methods, Beikan Biology’s scientists discover novel lead compounds and efficiently and rapidly advance them into high-quality clinical candidates.

Shouti Biotechnology

As a global, clinical-stage drug development company, Shuodi is dedicated to driving transformative change in the accessibility and efficacy of medicines worldwide. The company aims to develop innovative, best-in-class small-molecule drugs targeting GPCRs for chronic diseases, converting expensive, unstable, and difficult-to-transport and administer biologic therapies into medications accessible to patients globally.

Yousen Jianheng Biopharmaceuticals (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. was established in January 2020. Its core team members hail from multinational pharmaceutical companies and leading domestic CROs, bringing extensive project development expertise in the fields of small-molecule drug and antibody drug R&D. The company currently boasts an R&D team of over 30 professionals, more than 80% of whom hold doctoral or master’s degrees.

The company focuses on two major therapeutic areas: autoimmune diseases and cancer. Committed to addressing unmet clinical needs, it develops first-in-class or best-in-class novel drugs with independent intellectual property rights and global commercialization rights. The company currently has more than 10 drug candidates in its pipeline, covering major disease areas such as oncology, autoimmune diseases, and osteoarthritis. Among these, UA007 has initiated one Phase II clinical trial and one Phase I clinical trial for multiple indications.