By Mao Xinhui
At Yangpu Riverside, the newly inaugurated comprehensive building of the Yangpu District Central Hospital offers residents a more comfortable and efficient medical experience. Advanced equipment such as 3.0 Tesla MRI, 320-slice CT, PET-CT, and hybrid operating rooms elevate its medical service capabilities to new heights.
Yangpu is on a new path of innovative development, aiming to build a "1+2+3+4" modern industrial system, with life and health as one of its key emerging sectors. This year, Yangpu is focusing on twelve specific industry chains within the medical and healthcare fields, establishing a key industry chain leadership system.
Nathan McNally, co-founder of the UK's P4 Precision Medicine Accelerator, has dedicated the past 15 years to building a tech ecosystem. Through this system, P4 has supported over 2,000 startups and raised more than £2 billion in private investment. Recently, McNally visited Yangpu Riverside to participate in the China-UK Life and Health Innovation Technology Exchange Conference, co-hosted by the Yangpu District Investment Promotion Office and Hua Hao Consulting. He hopes to find broader development opportunities for his projects in China. "Our incubator projects cover areas such as cancer immunotherapy, digital therapies, new drug development, in vitro diagnostics, and biomarkers. We aim to find practical applications for these innovations from top British universities and hospitals in China."
The event showcased numerous cutting-edge technologies, such as a one-stop genetic testing platform, handheld preterm birth screening devices, AI-based personalized cancer treatment projects, and a single-drop blood test for breast cancer. Simply discussing these innovations wasn't enough; real demonstrations were needed. Leading experts, academic teams, cross-border technology transfer agencies, industrial investment institutions, and startup representatives from the UK's life and health sector brought substantial projects, hoping to find new opportunities in Yangpu, much like Nathan McNally.
HaraeDx, a startup based in Silicon Valley, is currently developing a rapid breast cancer diagnostic test that provides results from a single drop of blood within 15 minutes. Recently, the company secured $15 million in funding. Bradley Morgan, Chief Business Officer of HaraeDx, expressed hopes to connect with Chinese medical institutions and device manufacturers to seek strategic partnerships and establish a foundation for entering the Chinese market.
As a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurship, Yangpu leverages its abundant scientific, educational, and medical resources to actively promote the incubation, transformation, and industrialization of scientific achievements in the medical and healthcare sectors. This fosters the coordinated development of the medical industry and services. Currently, the district is home to over 200 life and health companies, nearly 50 of which are large-scale enterprises, including industry leaders like WeDoctor, Haiwang Medical, and Bidepharm. Functional platforms like the Shanghai Advanced Medical Equipment Innovation Center and the Shanghai Technology Exchange are also located here.
Looking ahead, Yangpu plans to strengthen basic research, promote industry-education integration, focus on the needs of industrial chain construction, and foster the growth and clustering of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. Enhanced policy support, quality services, and comprehensive market development assistance will create a win-win scenario of academic progress, business growth, industrial upgrades, and public benefit.