On the morning of March 23, the National Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Center was inaugurated in Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town. Peng Qinghua, Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, and Huang Qiang, Deputy Secretary of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Governor of the People's Government of Sichuan Province, visited Chengdu Tianfu International Bio-town to investigate the development of bio-medicine industry, and jointly unveiled the Center.
During the investigation, they visited the WestChina-Frontier PharmaTech Co., Ltd. and HitGen Inc. They came to enterprise showrooms and laboratories, talked with enterprise heads and researchers, and watched the display of new products and technologies. They also learned about the construction of the National Center for Safety Evaluation of New Drugs, the evaluation of non-clinical studies, and the development of new drugs based on the screening and synthesis technology of DNA-encoded compounds. Peng stressed that General Secretary Xi Jinping and the CPC Central Committee have always given top priority to people's safety and health. Bio-medicine is closely bound up with people's safety and health, and has played a vital role in the fight against COVID-19, thus demonstrating its value and significance as a strategic emerging industry. In recent years, Sichuan has accelerated the development of bio-medicine. With such advantages as solid science and education foundation and abundant medical resources, we should intensify efforts in building an industrial circle with stronger chains, introduce and cultivate leading enterprises, increase characteristic industrial parks, and continuously advance the development of industrial clusters, with emphasis on innovative drugs and high-end medical devices. Given the driving role of innovation in the development of bio-medicine, we should strengthen basic research and applied basic research, double efforts in building major innovation platforms, support enterprises, universities and institutes to make breakthroughs in key and core technologies, continuously optimize review and approval services, promote local and nearby transformation of research outcomes, forge and enhance the core competitiveness of the industry. Peng urged biomedical enterprises to enhance their awareness of quality and social responsibility, develop and produce high-quality and effective drugs, so as to make greater contributions to ensuring people's safety and health.
Afterwards, Peng and Huang went to the Tianfu International Bio-town Conference Center to attend the unveiling of the National Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Center. Huang congratulated the establishment of the Center. He said that locating the country's only precision medicine industry innovation center in Chengdu conveys the state's confidence and trust in Sichuan. We must thoroughly implement the guiding principles of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important exposition on the construction of a healthy China, seize opportunities and shoulder our mission to be the "leader" at the forefront of the industry, the "accelerator" of industrial clusters, and the "vanguard" of collaborative innovation. We need to set sights on the frontiers of medicine, speed up the development of platforms for precise diagnosis, treatment and evaluation, and tackle bottlenecks in scientific research, in a bid to produce and transform valuable and innovative outcomes as early as possible. We need to build an innovative ecosystem of "government-medicine-industry-university-research institute-financing-end user", attract more talented professionals, cultivate world-class pharmaceutical enterprises, and forge an integrated industrial cluster. The West China Hospital of Sichuan University should lead and accelerate the establishment of a collaborative innovation mechanism and an operation entity. All participating organs should provide talent support and relevant provincial and municipal departments should enhance service guarantee to facilitate the Center to produce practical outcomes, thus better ensuring people's well-beings and benefits.
Vice Governor Yang Xingping presided over the unveiling. Shi Xiaolin, Member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee and Secretary of the CPC Chengdu Municipal Committee, and Wang Jianguo, Secretary of the CPC Committee of Sichuan University, delivered speeches respectively. Li Weimin, the representative of leading organs of the Center and President of West China Hospital, introduced the Center. Yang Huanming, the representative of cooperative co-construction organs of the Center, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Chairman of BGI Shenzhen, made a speech. The West China Hospital and the cooperative co-construction organs of the Center signed the Cooperation Agreement on the Construction of the National Precision Medicine Industry Innovation Center.
At about 11:15 a.m., Peng and Huang jointly unveiled the Center amid warm applause.
The Center will set sights on national major strategic plans, internationally advanced technologies, and major development needs of precision medicine. Through making targeted efforts in key areas like precise diagnosis, treatment and evaluation, and the construction of a strategic resource pool for precision medicine, the Center will strive to be a national innovation center for precision medicine, a demonstration zone for the transformation of medical innovation outcomes, an industrial cluster for precision medicine, a top-notch talent pool for precision medicine, and a national strategic core think tank for medicine and health.
Wang Yihong, Deputy Director of the Standing Committee of Sichuan Provincial People's Congress, and Secretary General of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, Wang Fengchao, Mayor of Chengdu Municipal People's Government, Li Yanrong, President of Sichuan University, and heads of relevant provincial departments and some central organs in Sichuan participated in the investigation or unveiling.
