Tao Xiumei,A pioneer of new drug research and development
( Etimes )
In the past, she wanted to look for a stable "iron rice bowl" occupation like her parents hoped. Facing the dilemma of family and career, she selected to go abroad to overcome scientific research difficulties. She also led her team to begin from scratch, making earth-shaking changes for her enterprise.
As general manager of newly-founded Beijing Nuo Kangda Pharmaceutical Technology Co and president of Beijing Yinuo Biopharmaceutical Co, Tao Xiumei is starting all over. However, this reset may have given here greater rebound space.
Brought up in an ordinary worker's family, Tao Xiumei was obedient and worked hard quietly. She decided to study pharmaceuticals to satisfy her father's wish that she could look for an "iron rice bowl" job in a State-owned enterprise. Fortunately, with enthusiasm in English and chemistry, she found her interest during study and forged an indissoluble bond with medicine.
Fighting will certainly result in happiness. There is no doubt that Tao Xiumei is lucky. " She diligently studied for her master’s and doctoral degrees, and is now applying for a postdoctoral degree. She said, "I like to set a target that may be realized in a short time and then accomplish it."
Indeed, she made it. She faced challenges in various careers, including working as a teacher and an employee in foreign enterprises, listed enterprises and private enterprises. She later started a successful business, developing both her career and family, and was ultimately selected as NPC representative of Daxing district.
Tao Xiumei, only 37 years old, has completed many impossible things in her life. She modestly contributes all these to "good luck." She said: "I was lucky enough to have been helped by many people. I was always unexpectedly rescued from a desperate situation. Someone said I look familiar. Perhaps, all people like to help the weak," she ridiculed.
There are always little-known stories behind each success, like scars that leave a sour memory even after they have healed.
When studying for her doctorate, Tao was working alone in Shanghai while pregnant. Every day, she rushed between her company and school, a distance of 50 km. During those times she felt unprecedented loneliness.
"During Spring Festival, the instructor carried out a major animal experiment project, so someone had to stay there to oversee it. All the other people in the team had to go home for the festival." While other families reunited, she stayed by herself in the laboratory because her husband and relatives were far away. She was accompanied by her unborn baby and 200 lab mice waiting for a drug delivery.
She struggled between studying in Germany and looking after her son. She endured hardships such as brushing bottles in the laboratory for three months due to lack of trust in a foreign country. She carries scars that cannot be healed because she fainted twice after high-strength work.
"It was so tired. I felt unable to contain it in my heart." One moment, when lying in bed and struggling between life and death, she even wanted to sleep forever. It was her son's cry for her again and again that called her back.
Looking back to her growth on the path of scientific research, what she is thankful for most and cannot forget is her former employer - Beijing Yuekang Kechuang Pharmaceutical Technology Co. She developed a hopeless company that had no research and development base into a "national high-tech enterprise" with a scale of over 200 personnel able to undertake national major special projects within five years.
Although she is not there now, she still thanks the company for giving her the opportunity to grow. "In the beginning, I wanted to learn with the possibility of failure. Now, exploring my heart, I think it was worth the five years of effort."
Others may think that Tao’s achievements reached their peak, but she was so ambitious. She wanted to try something new based to her own ideas. So, the idea of starting a business became more and more clear. After a series of preparations, Nuo Kangda Pharmaceutical and Yinuo Biopharmaceutical, located in the development area and Daxing district, respectively, were formally founded in June of this year.
Tao Xiumei always has a constant target for the professional manager to a manager with stock rights. "For pharmaceutical enterprises, the differentiated and high-end products are the critical factors that determine whether enterprises can survive. High-end preparation is the orientation that I have been researching since I was an undergraduate. My goal has not changed since then."
Now, Tao Xiumei is closer and closer to her dream. With a high-level research and development team of more than 40 members, Nuo Kangda is researching and developing two sole antitumor products that have passed the clinical stage.
"If everything goes well, the two products will be produced in Yinuo Biopharmaceutical and put into the market in the near future." For all these things, Tao Xiumei is full of anticipation, "Perhaps, I myself cannot influence the whole industry, but I hope that my products, my team, and Yinuo and Nuo Kangda will leave something in the industry."
The Area with Six Parks
Global Top 500