Shortage of money and shortage of funds in biomedical industry

2014-01-23 source: for the appearance of a biological medicine in science times, the industry summarized it as "one billion dollars, ten years" Due to the constraints of long-term investment in biomedicine, the lack of funds has become the biggest constraint for the development of the industry How can capital and industry "marry"? People in the investment community generally believe that the core technology and products with real value are the key to the "gold absorption" of enterprises Due to the difficulty in obtaining sustained capital investment, the slow heat biomedical industry is falling into the "cannot afford" vortex At the 9th China venture capital and financing development high level forum held at the beginning of the year, the academic and business circles were complaining about "lack of money", but the investment circles said that biomedical investment was large, high risk and long cycle, and they "really dare not invest money" Although all parties are optimistic about the prospect of biomedical industry, how to make capital and industry "marriage" is still the most difficult problem at present Subject to the capital and time for the emergence of a biological medicine, the industry summarized it as "one billion dollars, ten years" As penicillin was discovered to mass production, after 14 years, it cost about 1.2 billion US dollars It took 29 years for streptomycin to be found in clinical trials It is precisely because of the constraints of long-term investment in biomedicine that the shortage of funds has become the biggest constraint for industrial development Xing Xinhui, deputy director of the Department of chemical engineering, Tsinghua University, told reporters that biomedical technology is a complex process from research and development to market From the perspective of research and development, it includes production technology, separation technology, preparation technology and equipment technology for in vitro diagnosis or clinical diagnosis "However, most of the good patent technologies of scientific research institutes and universities are" lying "there and hard to transform." Xing Xinhui said frankly, "it's not enough to rely on state funds alone, but also need the push behind social funds injection." However, not only research institutions are short of money, but also domestic biomedical enterprises are rarely favored by venture capital funds due to their small scale, low competitiveness, insufficient investment in R & D and low economic benefits "Last year, the total scale of R & D investment in the domestic medical industry was less than 20 billion yuan, while the R & D investment in Europe and the United States in 2012 was as high as 130 billion dollars, with a considerable gap between domestic and foreign countries." Said Zhou Wei, an investment partner of Binghong According to the data released by the State Food and drug administration, as of December 11, 2013, there were 6986 registered drug manufacturers in China, but only a few enterprises with sales volume exceeding 10 billion yuan The shortage of funds leads to few enterprises trying to develop new drugs in China Considering the high risk, professional investment funds are mostly cautious about the intervention of innovative biological drugs According to Zhou Yu's analysis, first of all, the domestic equity investment environment is not very mature, and second, few investors can afford the consumption of Biopharmaceutics from technology research and development, animal experiments, clinical practice, declaration, production to market for more than ten years According to Wang Hongxin, vice general manager of Brose pharmaceutical investment Co., Ltd., if biomedical achievements are not combined with capital, they will never grow and benefit more people Without capital, technology is hard to release However, how can the biomedical industry attract more social capital? In this regard, people in the investment community generally believe that the core technology and products of real value are the key to "attracting gold" for enterprises "When we are financing biomedical enterprises, the key is to investigate the technology, market, products and management of enterprises Finally, it depends on the products of the enterprise Through professional knowledge and employing experts, comprehensive evaluation of partners and products is necessary " Said one investor Xu Qian, executive general manager of Fosun investment, for example, said that Chongqing Fosun Pharmaceutical Research Institute has two compounds with independent intellectual property rights Due to the prospect of industrial development, they were transferred by a foreign fund at a contract price of 388 million euros before the stage of new drug research and development "The first compound is called DPP4 inhibitor, which has the prospect of developing into a drug for the treatment of loaded diabetes; the second compound is a receptor inhibitor, which has the prospect of developing into a drug for the treatment of lung cancer, breast cancer and other tumors." "Being recognized by the international fund also indicates that such innovative drugs represent the direction of new drug research and development in China," Xu said However, Xu Qian said that there are still many improvements to be made in the combination of domestic investment and R & D For example, scientific research institutes and universities have strong R & D strength, but they don't have much experience to contact with investment institutions and industry, which leads to many scientific research achievements can't be commercialized Zhou Wei believes that biomedicine is high-risk, high investment and long cycle, and the investment of enterprises alone is far from enough, which needs more encouragement, guidance and investment from the policy level of the state "Fortunately, China's pharmaceutical market and investment market are maturing, and the attitude of investment institutions towards early pharmaceutical projects will gradually change with the maturity of the industry." Zhou said However, with the rise of personalized medicine, digital medicine, in vitro diagnosis and other industries, as well as the continuous introduction of national favorable policies, the development prospect of biomedical industry is generally optimistic by the industry Xing Xinhui said that in vitro diagnosis is a very noteworthy direction "For the international in vitro diagnostic market, the market size is expected to reach about $60 billion in 2018, with a compound growth rate of about 5.1% While domestic in vitro diagnosis technology is relatively lagging behind, but the market growth rate is also expected to reach 15% to 25% " Moreover, the new technology of low molecular weight heparin and chondroitin sulfate enzymatic production also has a certain investment prospect According to Xing Xinhui, heparin has strong anticoagulant effect and is often used as anticoagulant in clinic Chondroitin sulfate is an acid mucopolysaccharide extracted from animal cartilage, which has very important uses in medicine, food, high-end cosmetics and animal feed "For these two drugs, China is the leading producer of APIs, but its production technology is relatively backward." Xing Xinhui said that at present, the international chemical degradation method is more moderate, more efficient, environmentally friendly, safer and highly controllable Therefore, the production technology of biological enzyme is worthy of attention In Wang Hongxin's view, the investment opportunities of biomedical industry will move forward and develop to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain in the future The upstream is mainly reflected in the pharmaceutical R & D enterprises and innovation projects, as well as the cultivation and processing of Chinese herbal pieces and authentic Chinese herbal medicines; the downstream is mainly reflected in the health service industry, such as hospitals, medical care, nursing homes, health management, internet medical, health food and other related supporting products, such as medical devices, testing equipment, etc