Shanghai (Nanxiang) Precision Medicine Industrial Park [Photo/jiading.gov.cn]

The Shanghai (Nanxiang) Precision Medicine Industrial Park, founded in November 2018 in Nanxiang town, Jiading district, focuses on four core areas: accurate diagnosis, treatment, rehabilitation, and prevention.

Designed to facilitate innovation, the park helps companies overcome difficulties, save money on research and development, commercialize their innovations, and shorten the time needed between scientific research and clinical application.

It has helped cutting-edge precision medicine research from overseas enter the Chinese market, and has elevated Shanghai and China's competitiveness in biopharmaceuticals, turning the coastal city into a global hub for the research and industrialization of precision medicine.

The park has managed to bring in over 70 companies and institutions for three main reasons. Firstly, it benefits from numerous colleges and universities in Shanghai, which provide the area with strong intellectual support. Secondly, the Jiading government offers strong policy, financial, and talent support. And lastly, the park adheres to a professional, market-oriented, and international model that offers more development possibilities to local companies.

Moreover, the park received a lot of attention during the COVID-19 outbreak as local companies performed well during the epidemic.

For example, GensKey, an infection diagnosis company based in Beijing that set up operations in the park at the end of last year, improved its test kit for COVID-19 and shortened the test time to just one hour. Its current yield is 20,000 kits per day, which can be increased to 100,000 if needed.

GensKey said the park's comprehensive structure and industrial chain are appealing, as are the many companies that share the same dedication to precision medicine.

Virogin Biotech Ltd recruited several high-end skilled workers from Canada and opened its new laboratory at the end of April. It has taken full advantage of its technology and platform and strengthened cooperation with its Chinese biomedical partners in developing vaccines and drugs for COVID-19. The company is planning to invest several millions of yuan over the next three years to develop and produce new immune therapies for oncolytic virus and bring more world leading drugs to Chinese patients.