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▲ Health Yuan production scene (photo provided by Health Yuan)

Jin Fang, chief scientist of Health Yuan, joined Health Yuan in 2014. Before that, she had been studying and working at the Shanghai Pharmaceutical Industry Research Institute, and had gone to the United States for postdoctoral studies. For a scientist, the greatest pain is not the inability to develop good drugs, but the inability to convert their research results into productivity and benefit the public.

Jin Fang introduced that she originally thought she would work in a research institution for her whole life, but a chance survey in 2012 made her fall into confusion. At that time, she undertook a survey project of the United Nations, surveying the clinical use of drugs in the field of asthma and COPD in China. This survey shocked her: more than 95% of clinical drugs were imported products, and research results had not been converted into products. Having been engaged in formulation research for more than 20 years, she herself has successfully developed nearly 10 projects and obtained production licenses, but she found in the survey that they were not used clinically.

"At that time, I was very surprised, and this surprise led to a deep thought - as a researcher, what is my value? Is it a series of expert titles and government-supported projects? If our research products cannot be put on the market, and research cannot be converted into productivity, it is equal to doing nothing, and my 'products' can only be samples and exhibits in the laboratory. So I decided to go to enterprises and go to the production front line to truly transform my research results into products and realize the social value of a researcher." Jin Fang said.

When Jin Fang first arrived in Shenzhen in 2014, the most impressive thing about Shenzhen was its speed. "This speed also requires us to speed up our research and development, shorten the time interval between laboratory research and factory industrialization, improve efficiency, and catch up with the 'Shenzhen speed'." Later, she found that there was indeed a "vast distance" between research and production.

Jin Fang analyzed the deeper reasons to the reporter: the research institute mainly researches new technologies and explores mechanisms, but these technologies always tend to become more and more complex. Because of the inertia cultivated during graduate studies, they will move towards the complex logic and data support required for publishing papers. However, in large-scale enterprise production, the processes and procedures should be as simple as possible."

Jin Fang recalled that many research projects in the research institute were not something that enterprises could absorb and digest at the time. In the process of transformation and industrialization of this new technology, many obstacles would be encountered. Breaking these obstacles, a project would take at least three to five years, and as long as ten years. "After coming to Health Yuan, I decided to spend three years to achieve seamless connection between research and development and production."

In 2014, Jin Fang became the chief scientist of HealthGen. Based on her previous research experience, she formulated a plan for inhalation preparations: First, the goal was to build a research-driven enterprise capable of participating in international competition; second, to conduct research on eight projects within three years, with one product ready for registration application to the national authority; third, to have a professional R&D team of 30 people. Ultimately, they achieved their three-year goals in just two years.

The first two years were the most difficult. Jin Fang frequently went down to the workshop. The factory workshop was engaged in daily production while also cooperating with her research. "Sometimes, production had to be stopped for our research; it was all investment, very difficult. For almost the first six production lines, I was in the workshop for the pilot-scale amplification of the first product on each line, following the production of each product one by one. In 2015, we applied for our first inhalation product, and by 2017, all eight projects were submitted. Now we maintain the submission of eight projects annually, with 40 projects currently running at different research stages."

Jin Fang said: "We used to say that research and production were 'two separate entities,' difficult to combine; but when I joined HealthGen, I wanted to make research and production 'one entity.' I'm glad that we've truly achieved this now. Now, after a project is initiated, it usually takes two years to submit it. I want to compress this further, to within a year and a half."

After thirty years of development, HealthGen now owns more than 20 major subsidiaries and employs nearly 13,000 people. In 2020, it had 1,557 R&D personnel; total R&D investment amounted to 1.261 billion yuan, an increase of 18.25% year-on-year; five products obtained registration approvals, six products obtained clinical approvals, and another four products passed consistency evaluations.

As of the end of 2020, HealthGen and its subsidiaries had applied for a total of 826 patents, including 543 domestic invention patents; the total number of authorized patents was 558, including 320 domestic invention patents; 71 international patents were applied for, of which 48 were authorized; and 18 PCT international applications were submitted.

HealthGen's financial report shows that in 2020, the company's main business achieved operating revenue of 13.446 billion yuan, an increase of 1.543 billion yuan year-on-year, representing a growth of 12.97%. Among them, chemical preparations increased by 8.44% year-on-year, chemical raw materials and intermediates increased by 12.24% year-on-year, and diagnostic reagents and equipment increased by 83.28% year-on-year.

Speaking of her understanding of "innovation," Jin Fang believes that innovation is a continuous process of "resetting." Jin Fang revealed: "In 2021, HealthGen's innovation journey will be 'reset' again, starting anew, with the construction of a new research institute in Shenzhen. The most important goal is to build a research-driven enterprise capable of participating in international competition. I think this goal is always on the way, and to participate in international competition, there can be no relaxation."

Guo Bin, academic committee member of Zhejiang University, professor at the School of Management, and director of the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Strategy Department, in an interview with Shenzhen Business Daily, analyzed that HealthGen's unique characteristic lies in breaking down the invisible barriers between research and production. "Bridging the last mile between research and production seems easy but is actually difficult. Shenzhen pharmaceutical companies dare to innovate and break through, and they have been outstanding in bridging this last 'mile,' forming a Shenzhen characteristic and contributing 'Shenzhen wisdom' to the global biopharmaceutical innovation trend." said Guo Bin.

Reprinted from: Shenzhen Business Daily