Xu Yaochang, who is over 60 years old, changed his life track.
15 years ago, he was a R&D executive of a multinational pharmaceutical company; 15 years later, he started his business for his ideals. In the past 15 years, he has witnessed the rise of Zhangjiang's bio-pharmaceutical industry and embarked on a new journey of thousands of miles of ambition.
People with dreams are always young.
This is the golden age of him and the team, everything has just begun.
Dr. Xu Yaochang
Clock is turned back to the first two years of the 21st century. Although mankind has ushered in a new scale over the long river of time, looking around the world, the economic situation has not "beginned well" because of this. Economic globalization and integration mean that the countries in the global village must "share honor and disgrace" to a certain extent. Correspondingly, with the sluggish economic development in Europe and the United States, the global economic situation is not optimistic.
However, what puzzles global politicians and economists is that in the far east, on the ancient land of China, everything seems to be thriving, full of vitality and hope. From China turning the tide and joining the WTO in 2001, to the color TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and microwave ovens of "MADE IN CHINA" seized the global market, the "China threat theory" was rampant for a time, and China's future and direction became the hottest topic in the global economic circle.
At that time, Xu Yaochang worked for Eli Lilly and Company, the world's leading pharmaceutical company, and was the representative of the "pride of heaven" in the hearts of young Chinese people. Due to his solid professional knowledge and diligent and serious work attitude, he became the backbone of the company in a few years.
By chance, Xu Yaochang went to Hong Kong to attend a meeting on business. After living and working abroad for many years, he wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to go back to China to go for a trip to the mainland and greet some classmates and friends from the past. He went to many cities, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, and then headed north. Although China's modernization level was far less than that of Europe and the United States at that time, the vitality and passion that burst out from various cities made Xu Yaochang extremely excited.
He vaguely realized something, but he couldn't explain it clearly, and he didn't realize that this short trip to China would connect him so closely with China's bio-pharmaceutical industry.
After returning to the United States, Xu Yaochang still led his team to develop new drugs. As labor costs continue to rise, the development of Eli Lilly encountered a bottleneck. The company entrusted Xu Yaochang to lead some people to cooperate with outsourcing service companies to jointly develop new drugs. In the United States, there are many such companies that provide outsourcing services. Xu Yaochang's project hired 6 R&D personnel, and Eli Lilly paid US$230,000 each.
This considerable fee made Xu Yaochang suddenly realize that Eli Lilly’s outsourcing project can be fully cooperated with Chinese outsourcing service companies. Although China's new drug research and development started late and its strength is relatively weak, both scientific researchers and college students are very enthusiastic about the biopharmaceutical industry, and can be used to do in China.
At that time, the salary of Chinese university graduates was generally 1,000-2,000 yuan and 3,000 yuan for doctoral students. In other words, paying 6 people to outsourcing services in the United States is enough to hire 36 scientific researchers in China. This is a good deal for Eli Lilly in the transformation and breakthrough stage. The company executives were very interested after listening to Xu Yaochang's proposal, so Xu Yaochang took them to China for a look.
Xu Yaochang led Eli Lilly's expedition team to Dalian, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Nanjing, and the last stop was Shanghai. We worked all the way, and when we arrived in Shanghai, everyone was already very tired, but we didn’t find a particularly satisfactory place to settle down. With the help of Hui Yongzheng, then deputy director of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Xu Yaochang and his party visited the Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation Research Center located on Songtao Road, Zhangjiang High-tech Park, . The laboratory windows were bright and clean, neat and bright, leaving a good impression on everyone. The two sides set the tone at that time that could cooperate.
This is the first time Xu Yaochang came to Zhangjiang in 2003.
In fact, for European and American pharmaceutical companies, no company has ever tried to find an outsourcing service team in China.Eli Lilly is also very cautious about this decision. Although he had a good impression of Shanghai during previous inspections, some people still insisted that the project should be placed in Beijing, the political center of China.
However, in Xu Yaochang's mind, the best place for this project has already been answered. When the company was in a strife, he contacted Minister Hui for the second time, hoping that he would provide an English version of PPT to fully introduce the situation in Shanghai. Minister Hui attached great importance to it after receiving the news. He found Shanghai Zhangjiang Biomedical Base Development Co., Ltd., the developer of "returnees in the air" and " Zhangjiang Pharmaceutical Valley ", and translated the relevant materials from Shanghai and Zhangjiang into a delicate and detailed material and passed it to Eli Lilly.
Xu Yaochang said to Eli Lilly's executives: "Shanghai is very serious and low-key in doing things. He is engaged in scientific research and needs a group of scientists to do things steadily. It may not necessarily be linked to politics."
Shanghai people are proactive in doing things, answering the questions they are concerned about, and completely touching Eli Lilly. Finally, they decided that is Shanghai Zhangjiang!
From more than a year from 2003 to 2004, Xu Yaochang frequently traveled between the United States and Shanghai, finalizing every detail of the project implementation. The first question is to choose a suitable site to build a laboratory. Xu Yaochang still clearly remembers that Wang Lanzhong, currently the general manager of Zhangjiang Biomedical Base, took him and his colleagues to Building 10 at the junction of Halle Road and Libing Road. The road leading to this small building is half flat and half still under renovation. General Manager Wang Lanzhong prepared overshoes for them in case they accidentally stepped into the bumpy puddle.
Although the environment here was not satisfactory at that time, Mr. Wang promised on the spot: "Don't look at this lonely building now, the road is bumpy, you can come back in three months and see it!" The problem of the venue of
has been settled, and the more critical link is finding people. Minister Hui immediately agreed to help him recruit 5 doctors, each of whom brought the research team members to "join". The core R&D team has also expanded from 25 to 150 in two years due to the strong promotion of Minister Hui Yongzheng.
Both the researchers and the research site were resolved. After the Eli Lilly agreement was successfully implemented, Xu Yaochang returned to the United States.
Three months later, Xu Yaochang, from the United States to Zhangjiang, Building 10 at the junction of Halle Road and Libing Road, has transformed from a hairy cune to a spacious and neat research institute. "I promised me to build the laboratory in three months, and I really did it," Xu Yaochang thought to himself. This is probably the "China speed" that attracted the attention of the world.
You can see the whole story. Xu Yaochang is even more determined at this time. It is absolutely true that if this matter is done here.
In early 2004, scientific researchers were in place and the chemical laboratory was renovated. The overseas order of Eli Lilly was successfully completed in Zhangjiang.
Eli Lilly leaders and scientists visited Shanghai Trail Blazers R&D Laboratory
Who expected that Zhangjiang's biomedical outsourcing service industry would start with Eli Lilly's overseas order. The team that took over Eli Lilly's orders at that time developed into the current Shanghai Ruizhi Chemical Research Co., Ltd., which was Zhangjiang's first large-scale biopharmaceutical outsourcing company. After that, more and more multinational pharmaceutical companies have entered Zhangjiang, and Zhangjiang's biopharmaceutical outsourcing industry has developed. To date, Zhangjiang's biomedical outsourcing service level is the best in the country, with more than 40 companies providing such services.
Looking back, this transaction was an unintentional way to plant willows, but after a few years, Zhangjiang's bio-pharmaceutical industry gained a dense forest. What Xu Yaochang did not expect was that this cooperation has caused quite a wave in the United States. CENews reported on this. Many biopharmaceutical companies that face the same problems as Eli Lilly are "ready to move" and formulate a "China strategy" in the hope of finding cheaper outsourcing services in China.
Although the Eli Lilly outsourcing project is progressing smoothly, Xu Yaochang hopes to go further from the bottom of his heart and can lead his team to China to develop new drugs. Unfortunately, the China strategy formulated by Eli Lilly at that time was very clear, and cooperation was outsourcing rather than setting up R&D centers. This made Xu Yaochang a little disheartened.
But at this moment, things turned around.
One day in 2005, Xu Yaochang received an invitation from the R&D director of Novartis , asking him to chat in Boston. Compared with Eli Lilly, as the three largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, they hope to take a bigger step into China and need Xu Yaochang to help Novartis establish a R&D center in China. "I think this should work. Come to China to make innovative drugs!" After some thought, Xu Yaochang agreed.
In January 2007, Xu Yaochang and two other Chinese colleagues from Novartis came to Zhangjiang again. This time, his mission is to take the lead in establishing the Novartis China R&D Center. The R&D building investment is as high as US$1 billion, and the design of the Everbright building was designed by dozens of people for three or four years, which is enough to demonstrate the importance of Novartis to the Chinese market.
Once a wasteland has been completed now Novartis R&D building
Xu Yaochang spent another five years in Zhangjiang. Seeing that the Novartis R&D center was basically formed, and seeing that the new drug R&D system was basically established, he made an amazing decision to leave.
In fact, this decision was not sudden. Since the biomedicine industry, Xu Yaochang has buried his original dream in his heart: to be the innovative medicine for the Chinese. After leaving Novartis , Xu Yaochang chose a local biopharmaceutical company in China to serve as the president of new drug research and development. This has been working for another four years, and it has led to the establishment of the company's new drug research and development center in Zhangjiang.
came to 2016. At this time, Zhangjiang, the biopharmaceutical industry, which has always been the dominant industry for 25 years, has long led the country and has a certain international influence. The flower of belief that has always cultivated biomedical innovation and entrepreneurship enterprises over the past 25 years has also blossomed and achieved remarkable results. From a deeper perspective, this is largely due to the rise of Zhangjiang's biomedical outsourcing services.
Pharmaceutical service outsourcing is a labor-intensive industry. A large number of scientific researchers have accumulated experience and technology while providing services to foreign pharmaceutical companies. When the time is ripe, this group of people are no longer willing to work for others and choose to go to China's biopharmaceutical companies to make innovative drugs. Riding on the national "mass entrepreneurship and innovation", many knowledgeable people gave up the favorable treatment of multinational pharmaceutical companies and turned to form a team to develop new drugs for the Chinese.
Zhangjiang Pharmaceutical Valley/Medicine Valley
Xu Yaochang, as a witness and promoter of the rise of Zhangjiang's bio-pharmaceutical industry, is even more aware of all this. If Xu Yaochang first set foot in Zhangjiang, he was still far from the dream of Chinese people to develop new drugs themselves, then after more than ten years of development, Zhangjiang now has more and more convenient transportation, more and more comfortable environment, and more and more talents gathered. Xu Yaochang strongly realized that the time for Chinese people to develop innovative drugs themselves is ripe.
Hearing that Xu Yaochang wanted to start a company, many people invited him to settle down locally. The 6,000-square-meter Linhai R&D building will not be charged a penny within five years. Xu Yaochang waved his hand and refused without any hesitation. "Some things can be done in Suzhou and in Jiading , but Zhangjiang is the most suitable place to make innovative drugs," he said firmly.
In 2016, Xu Yaochang founded Shanghai Heyu Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and with more than 40 scientific researchers, he started the development of new drugs for tumor immunotherapy on Libing Road, and received a US$28 million investment in the A round. His work is busier than before. From scientific research to recruitment to financing, everything remains unchanged. What remains unchanged is his persistence in dreams and clear self-awareness.
"The gap between our country's new drugs and Europe and the United States is still very big, and there is still a long way to go. I hope that the government and society can give biopharmaceutical companies more patience and confidence, and unswervingly support 100 small biopharmaceutical companies. In 10 or 15 years, international-level large enterprises will definitely be produced. If we do pharmaceutical research and development, we must calm down and not be impetuous. If we do 8-15 years, there will be some good things coming out at that time, which the United States cannot stop them." Xu Yaochang said firmly.
No. 10, Halle Road, Heyu Bio's new office
, for more than ten years, Xu Yaochang has been unable to let go of his original intention of making Chinese innovative drugs, and he and Zhang Jiang's love that is constantly chaotic.
Now, they have just moved to their new office on Halle Road. This was once the place where he and Zhang Jiang became, but now it has become the place where his dream began.
Xu Yaochang believes that all of this is God’s best arrangement.
This article is an original work. Please indicate the source of reprinting: Zhangjiangfabu WeChat official account.
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