International Biopharmaceutical Innovation Park Welcomes New Entrants Amid Surge of Global and Local Collaboration

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, November 21stTitle: International Medical Innovation Park Welcomes "New" Records

Xinhua News Agency reporter Ji Ning

"Beijing is an important strategic starting point for Bayer's development in China, and the establishment of the Innovation Park is a key step in our collaboration with local innovative forces to build a new ecosystem for pharmaceutical R&D." Recently, the Bayer · Yizhuang Open Innovation Center was officially launched at the International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park in Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone. The Bayer Global Life Science Co-creation Platform and the first batch of incubated enterprises were also established simultaneously. The statement by Zhou Xiaolan, Global Executive Vice President of Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division and President of Bayer in China, expressed the sentiments of many companies that have settled in.

As the first innovation center established by Bayer in China, this center will incubate local innovative pharmaceutical companies, promote the overseas expansion of locally produced innovative drugs, and collaborate with high-level scientific research and clinical institutions to enhance basic research and clinical translation capabilities. The implementation of this project serves as a vivid testament to the accelerating aggregation of global pharmaceutical innovation power within the International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park.

The Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Fifteenth Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, which was reviewed and approved at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, proposed to support the development of innovative drugs and medical devices. Beijing is focusing on deep innovation, integration, and enhancement in the biopharmaceuticals industry. As a result of these efforts to create an attractive environment, an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies are choosing to settle in the International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park, injecting strong momentum into regional industrial development.

Everything is accelerating. In mid-November, reporters visited the International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park located in the southern fifth ring road of Beijing. Looking around, tower cranes were everywhere, machines roared, and several talent security apartments had risen from the ground. Across the road, several modern buildings had been newly decorated. Apart from Bayer, AstraZeneca's sixth global strategic center, Medtronic's first digital medical innovation base in China, and 12 other international pharmaceutical giants were gradually moving in. Standing in front of the reception hall’s sand table, multiple visiting teams paused to observe, experiencing the vibrant vitality of this emerging park. By optimizing existing industrial structures, the park’s current completed area has reached 280,000 square meters, with supporting facilities for pharmaceutical R&D also being vigorously advanced.

Focusing on innovative R&D and industrial chain construction, a blueprint for the comprehensive development of the park has become clear. The park covers a total area of 5.8 square kilometers and is divided into four functional zones: the headquarters cluster zone focuses on attracting enterprises to settle in; the medical-engineering integration zone specializes in introducing research institutions; the R&D transformation zone concentrates on core R&D and transformation processes; and the pharmaceutical intelligent manufacturing zone aims to build smart factories. Numerous high-quality pharmaceutical industry resources will form a strong synergistic effect here.

"The park fully utilizes the policy, innovation, and openness advantages of the capital. An initial cluster of the biopharmaceuticals industry has been formed, and a new batch of leading innovative pharmaceutical and device companies will settle in by 2026." Wang Zhanshuo, Deputy Director of the Biotechnology and Healthcare Industry Bureau of Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, introduced that the Life Health Industry-Education Integration Base and Clinical Medical Research Center have already started planning and construction. Special policies targeting future health fields such as brain-computer interfaces and synthetic biology are currently being formulated.

More notably, relying on the landing of the national artificial intelligence application pilot base (medical field), the park is accelerating the cultivation of an AI medical health industry cluster. It is building key infrastructures such as a supercomputing power base, a data labeling base, and a trusted data space for healthcare and pharmaceuticals industries. Targeting two major directions—AI + pharmaceutical manufacturing and precision diagnosis and treatment—it aims to create new industrial innovation advantages.

"We are building an 'industrial chain, innovation chain, talent chain, and ecological chain' system," said Kong Lei, Secretary of the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area. The International Pharmaceutical Innovation Park will focus on providing services for the establishment of global top biopharmaceutical enterprises' headquarters and innovation centers. It will simultaneously create an integrated space covering the entire cycle from innovative product development, pilot testing to scaled production, offering full-chain support for enterprise development.

With each new arrival, the International Medical Innovation Park is bustling with construction and innovation vitality. In the reception hall, streams of visitors come to inspect and negotiate, full of expectations for the park's prospects; in the R&D center, all kinds of advanced pharmaceutical equipment have been debugged and are ready, awaiting the入驻 of research teams to tackle challenges; on the construction site, machines roar and vehicles shuttle non-stop, as industrial carriers rise from the ground one by one, revealing the雏形 of relevant industrial zones.