Editor's note
The gene industry has broad prospects and is hailed as one of the industries with the longest prospects in the 21st century and has received strong support from the country. The gap between China's genetic base research and the world's advanced level is not great, but industrial development is lagging behind that of developed countries. How to expand the financing channels of genetic companies and promote the industrialization of basic research results is a prominent issue currently facing the need for all parties to actively explore solutions.
Reporter Wang Zhaoxuan reported
"From 2004 to 2008, China's top ten domestic patent holders for patent applications for gene technology were 8 universities, and the other two were scientific research institutes and no enterprise." Zhang Qin, deputy director of the State Intellectual Property Office, was in the The China Gene Science and Industry Development Summit Forum stated that although the number of patent applications for genetic technology in China has grown rapidly in recent years, the number of patents granted has also been much higher than that of foreign countries, but the effective period and efficiency of patents are much lower than in developed countries, and There is still a certain gap between the development of China's genetic industry and developed countries.
In recent years, the growth rate of the global bio-industry is nearly 10 times that of the average growth rate of the world economy. The genetic industry including genetic diagnosis reagents, gene detection, genetic engineering drugs, gene therapy, genetic transformation, etc. is regarded as the most promising in the 21st century. One of the industries. At present, there are more than 100 kinds of genetically engineered drugs on the market in China, but there is still a long way to go before the rapid development of the genetic industry and the formation of a larger industrial scale.
Call for major technological breakthroughs
According to Zhang Qin, the average effective period of domestic patents for genetic technology is only 4.8 years, while that of foreign countries is generally 8.7 years. As the number of years approaches, the rate of decline in domestic patent efficiency is significantly higher than that of foreign countries.
"In the absence of major technological breakthroughs, the number of years of patents is certainly shorter." Qin Yilong, CEO of United Gene Technology Group, said that if there is a major breakthrough in China's genetic technology, a series of patents will be produced, and the number of years of patents will also be relatively low. long. At present, few series of patents appear in China. This shows that although domestic companies have strong ability to imitate, their ability to innovate is still insufficient.
Qin Yilong said that major breakthroughs are based on a series of breakthroughs. To achieve a series of breakthroughs requires a strong team. Most researchers in China are in universities and research institutes. There are few good projects in enterprises, but the professors and researchers in universities and research institutes are basically fighting each other and cannot form a strong team, so it is difficult to make major breakthroughs. In contrast, most of the foreign researchers are R&D-oriented companies that have the ability to develop major innovative products. Chinese companies still do not have the ability to do this. They have been following others, imitating the products of foreign companies.
Zhang Lei, deputy general manager of Tianjin Ensay Cellular Gene Engineering Co., Ltd., believes that there are some problems in China's genetic industry that are not conducive to long-term development. First, the industrial chain is incomplete and the innovation platform is aging. Enterprises and R&D institutions only have experience in the development of generic drugs, and they have a big gap between developed drug basic research, project evaluation, quality research, and safety evaluation in developed countries, such as drug screening, large-scale mammalian cell culture, antibodies, gene therapy, and protein modification. There are technical bottlenecks in such frontier technologies and key technology areas, and no successful industrial service models have been explored. The second is the low level of industrial integration, the lack of talents, capital, and equipment, and the lack of leading companies with international influence. Small and medium-sized biopharmaceutical companies lack core competitiveness and lack the experience of participating in global competition and becoming bigger and stronger. Third, the traditional management and management methods are outdated and there is a lack of compound management personnel. Fourth, there is a lack of supporting resources for bio-industries in China. Strategic research, project evaluation, strategic consulting, information exchange, project management, professional training, R&D outsourcing, exhibition planning, patent agency, etc., have low service levels. For example, some projects have exceeded their plans in terms of time and cost due to poor management. Some governments The funded projects failed to return, and some projects could not find funding due to lack of good business plans. In addition, a very important issue is that many intellectual property rights are not effectively protected due to unprofessional patent agencies. Therefore, there is an urgent need for professional, high-level, and professional ethics compliance agency services.
Speed ​​up the industrialization from the market
Wang Zhizhen, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said at the China Gene Science and Industry Development Summit Forum that there is not much difference between China's genetic research and the world advanced level, and even some are in a leading position. This has laid a good foundation for the development of China's genetic industry.
The reporter learned that China has indeed made some achievements in the study of genetic fundamentals, but there is a big gap between industrialization and developed countries.
Zhang Lei said that due to institutional factors, China’s biotechnology R&D institutions have attached importance to core papers and contempt for technological transformation. After completing the previous work, they have rushed to “shoot young†and are unwilling to continue the lack of “breakthrough†technical improvement work, leading to advanced and advanced technologies. The current situation of backwardness in the middle and lower reaches is that the level of scientific research in the laboratory is high, the level of industrialized manufacturing, and the level of product market expansion are low.
"From the research of universities and research institutes to the development of market-oriented products, we need a change in philosophy." Qin Yilong said that all the research results of universities and scientific research institutes currently meet the requirements of industrialization, and universities and research institutes are also very Few people will go to develop results into products, and most companies do not have this ability. The reason is that "colleges and scientific research institutes are seriously inadequate for the training of engineering and technical personnel, and there are too few talented people engaged in applied research in China." However, the boundaries between basic research, applied research, and industrialization research are gradually blurred. Some projects are basic research but are very close to industrialization. Once successful, they can be popularized and applied. This is a noteworthy feature.