Let bacteria "eat" tumors to reduce birth defects by 1%

At present, the global biomedical market is booming. With the rapid development of biotechnology (Bio-Tech), the variety and treatment range of biological drugs are constantly optimized, the advantages of safety, effectiveness and wide use are highlighted, and the market scale and share are expanding rapidly. In recent years, Guangzhou's biomedical industry has developed vigorously and has become one of the first strategic emerging industrial clusters in the country. In 2023, the total output value of Guangzhou's biomedicine and health care industry reached 117.8 billion billion yuan. It is the only strategic emerging industrial cluster in Guangdong Province that has been encouraged and commended by the State Council for three consecutive years. Its industrial scale, number of enterprises and innovation platform are among the "first echelon" in China ". This August, the research team of "Anchoring Modernization Reform and Deepening-Guangzhou New Industrialized Unicorn Enterprise Research Line" entered Guangzhou biomedical unicorn enterprises to make suggestions for industrial development to enter the "fast lane.

Touch impossible.

Innovation for advanced cancer patients

"From the beginning, we were based on making innovative drugs." In 2016, Zhao Zijian, a tenured professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States, had a new identity: founder, chairman and CEO of Huajin Pharmaceutical. In July of that year, Guangzhou Huajin Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. was established in Guangzhou.

The current means of cancer treatment, in addition to traditional surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, traditional Chinese medicine conditioning means, now in targeted therapy, immunotherapy has some progress. In recent years, a new type of therapy called "anti-cancer bacterial therapy" has emerged in the industry, which uses bacteria to deal with cancer foci in the body and eat cancer cells, which is a new type of immunotherapy. Huajin Pharmaceutical is an innovative pharmaceutical enterprise that lays out "oncolytic bacteria.

"Our treatment methods are aimed at many advanced cancer patients who are still difficult to treat clinically, especially some cancer patients whose current treatment methods are extremely limited." Zhao Zijian introduced to the research team that after the core product Samwick is launched in the future, it will also face two major problems in the tumor industry: the first is how to effectively and quickly kill tumors, and the other is to control tumor metastasis. These two problems will be reflected in the innovation of drugs.

There are also many biomedical enterprises in Guangzhou that aim at medical problems. Birth defects are not only a major public health problem, but also a nightmare for many families. Birth defects refer to structural, functional or metabolic abnormalities that occur before death. They are an important cause of abortion, death and disability of newborns and infants, and cause a heavy burden on families and society.

"The Outline of the Healthy China 2030 Plan makes the reduction of birth defects one of the overall goals of the country. Reducing the rate of birth defects by 1 per cent is also the goal of our Jiachan Medical." Dr. Zhang Wei, founder and general manager of Guangzhou Jiajian Medical Testing Co., Ltd., introduced to the research team that as a medical platform service provider for clinical genomic diseases, Jiajian Medical hopes to contribute its share to the health level of Chinese people through its self-developed platform technology and products.

"The difficulty is that there are many types of genetic diseases in our country, and most single-gene genetic diseases can cause teratosis, disability, and even death. Due to the large population base, it is estimated from the data released in 2012 that the incidence of birth defects in my country is about 5.6, and about 900000 new children with birth defects are added every year, and each patient with genetic diseases will bring nearly to society and families. How can this burden be reduced with a burden of 4 million yuan?" this is also a challenge that this company rooted in Guangzhou wants to urgently complete. "Create commercial products for early diagnosis, early screening, and early diagnosis, reduce the occurrence of birth defects from the source, and implement targeted interventions for patients as soon as possible to delay or even avoid the occurrence of adverse outcomes." In Zhang Wei's view, landing in Guangzhou has become a favorable condition for the development of enterprises. "We hope to give further play to the support of the government, the guidance of policies, and the atmosphere of business, so as to base ourselves on the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to the whole country and the world, and make the brand of genetic Junior College famous."

post-epidemic era

New Crown Drugs Depart from Guangzhou, Third-Party Testing Comes to the Stage

"We believe that the ultimate control or end of diseases with respiratory viral infections like the new coronavirus and influenza virus must depend on vaccine prevention and broad-spectrum anti-toxic drug treatment."

On March 23, 2023, Guangdong sentient beings ruichuang biotechnology co., ltd. announced that China's first single-drug 3CL inhibitor, lotevir tablets (trade name: le ruiling®) Obtain conditional approval from the State Drug Administration in accordance with the special approval procedures for drugs.

This means that a broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus drug born in Guangzhou is officially available.

"Founded in 2018, we are a research and development and commercialization company focusing on the two fields of respiration and metabolism, which is spun off from the listed company Zhongsheng Pharmaceutical." Chen Xiaixin, co-founder/president of Zhongsheng Ruichuang, introduced to the members of the research team that as an innovative drug company, Zhongsheng Ruichuang had accumulated more than ten years of research and development experience before the independent spin-off, and also had sufficient experience in the research and development of anti-influenza virus drugs in the past. "As a result, we have been laying out broad-spectrum anti-coronavirus drug development since early 2020, and with the advancement of basic research and the understanding of the new coronavirus, we have finally decided to go all out to advance research and development in 2021."

Also facing the challenge is the inspection and testing industry. The research team came to Guangzhou Huayin Kang Medical Group Co., Ltd. and entered this independent medical examination and diagnosis service enterprise with pathology as the core.

"We are a company founded in 2009. After 15 years of development, we have now become a large-scale comprehensive chain of third-party medical laboratories nationwide." Wen Yunjie, senior vice president of Huayin Kang, introduced to the research team that Huayin Kang's characteristic advantage lies in integration, "with pathology as the core, pathology plus inspection is realized, and the service network basically covers the whole country."

Wen Yunjie said that at present, China's population is in the aging stage, and the demand for medical services is just needed, and there is also great potential for development. For third-party service companies, intensive and efficient has become a significant advantage. Wen Yunjie said the public's awareness of third-party testing agencies has also increased during the epidemic.

From the Bay Area to the Future

Build an international platform, high investment industry more "find people"

Started in 2016, it took 8 years for Guangzhou Hanteng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. to achieve the "first" in South China-the largest biomacromolecule drug CDMO company in South China.

CDMO enterprises, also known as pharmaceutical contract research and development production institutions. It usually refers to the provision of pharmaceutical process development, design and optimization services for pharmaceutical companies in the form of contract customization, and on this basis to provide customized production services from kg to ton. Generally speaking, CDMO enterprises take advantage of their own technical advantages and production capacity to undertake the functions of process development and production of pharmaceutical enterprises, so that pharmaceutical enterprises can focus more on drug research and development.

"My choice of this direction is actually related to my studies." Shen Xiao, founder of Hanteng Biotechnology, introduced to the research team that he chose the direction of biotechnology in his undergraduate stage and focused on the field of pharmaceutical process development of biological drugs in his doctoral stage. He once worked in a European CDMO company. "On the other hand, it was based on the booming domestic biopharmaceutical sector at the time. There were a lot of biotech companies established, and I felt an urgent need for companies to provide them with services to help them bring their products to the clinic and to the market faster." At that time, there was no CDMO company in Guangzhou, and the establishment of Hanteng also achieved a breakthrough from scratch.

"Huangpu's support for biomedicine in the entire Greater Bay Area is very strong." According to Shen Xiao, because biomedicine is a long-term, high-investment industry, the support of talents is very important. "I think we still have to find ways to attract more talent, from other places or even foreign countries. At the same time, we also have to find ways to find better industrial opportunities or innovative projects in Hong Kong and Macau to transform in the Greater Bay Area."

"At the same time, investment must also be increased. Whether it is government subsidies or the activity of the capital market, it can continue to exert force. Because places like the global biomedicine development is good, it must be a gathering of universities, while the capital market is very active." Shen Xiao said.

Experts and scholars present in this issue

Zeng Dexiong, deputy to Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress and director of Institute of urban culture, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences

Xu Song, Representative of Guangzhou Municipal People's Congress, Deputy Director of Guangdong Guozhi Law Firm

Ma Wenbin Professor and PhD supervisor, School of Life Sciences, Sun Yat-sen University

Sun Yirong Associate Researcher, Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences

Chen Feng Associate Research Fellow, Institute of Modern Industry, Guangzhou Academy of Social Sciences

Tan Huishan, Secretary and Deputy Secretary-General of Guangzhou Bio-industry Alliance Branch

Lu Qiuling Deputy General Manager of Private Banking Department of Agricultural Bank of China Guangzhou Branch

Current research enterprise

Guangdong sentient beings Ruichuang Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Huajin Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Huayin Kang Medical Group Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Jia Jian Medical Testing Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Hanteng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Ruifeng Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Yuanjing Biotechnology Co., Ltd. Guangzhou Weilong Special Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd.

A08-10 version

Nandu Research Total No. 411

Director: Rong Mingchang Liu Jiangtao

Producer: Wang Jiatian, Shuangyue, Wang Ying, Chen Weibin

Co-ordination: Chen Shi, Wu Jingyan, Ren Xianbo, Guan Jianming

Executive Co-ordination: Ouyang Yunwei, Jiang Ying, Chen Chengli, Li Zhiqi, Ye Tong, Ren Leibin

Writing/Photography: Li Zhiqi, Dong Xiaoyan, Dong Shuyun, Chen Yunjian, Cui Junchao, Xiao Ziqi, Feng Zhoufeng, Liang Weipi, Gao Yongjia