China's biotechnology is expected to rank among the top three in the world within 15 years --- April 20, 2007

　　China's biotechnology and industry are expected to rank among the top three in the world within 5-15 years. This exciting prospect was painted by Professor Wang Hongguang, director of the China Biotechnology Development Center of the Ministry of Science and Technology, at the "4th Sino-European Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical Technology Enterprise Matching Conference" held in Shanghai yesterday.

　　China is recognized as the world's largest potential market for biological products. Some predict that by 2020, the total market value of China's bio-industry will reach 40 trillion RMB.

　　Relevant personnel introduced that biotechnology has become one of China's key development industries. According to incomplete statistics, the R&D investment in this field last year increased threefold compared to 1999. Increased government investment has further driven the transformation of China's biotechnology and industry from tracking and imitation to independent innovation, from laboratory exploration to industrialization, and from single technological breakthroughs to overall coordinated development. Currently, among the 299 science and technology parks distributed throughout the country, more than 100 have biotechnology R&D projects.

　　Professor Wang Hongguang believes that China has four major advantages in developing biotechnology: systems, resources, talent (Chinese), and potential markets. According to incomplete statistics, China has about 260,000 species of animals, plants, and microorganisms, making it one of the countries richest in biological resources. At the same time, China has more than 4,100 research institutes and more than 560,000 specialized researchers. "Of course, in addition to the need for further improvement in personnel quality, the proportion of only 17 people engaged in biotechnology-related industries per 10,000 people ranks relatively low globally."

　　At the meeting, Professor Wang Hongguang presented a calculation to nearly a thousand European small and medium-sized biotechnology entrepreneurs. According to the cost analysis results of 12 Class I biological products in China conducted by the China Biotechnology Development Center recently, European companies can save 70% on drug R&D costs and 30% on drug manufacturing costs by conducting drug R&D in China. The average R&D time is 10 years, and the average cost of each drug is 100 million RMB, which is about one-eighth of that in the United States.