In order to celebrate the first anniversary of the new drug founders' club, the club will hold its first annual meeting in Suzhou. R & D guest had the honor to interview Dr. Wang Peng, who put forward the concept of open innovation in China very early. He is now the president of the club. He is the vice president of Yabao pharmaceutical, the president of Beijing Pharmaceutical Research Institute of Yabao Pharmaceutical Group and the general manager of Suzhou Yabao pharmaceutical R & D Co., Ltd. We asked him to talk about what he has always adhered to the concept of open innovation and how he has assisted in practice over the years.
Wang Peng has been engaged in the research and development of innovative drugs at Schering plough Research Institute for 18 years and has made significant contributions to the discovery and early development of 9 candidate drugs. In 2008, he was invited by Wuxi apptec as vice president and head of R & D biology. Later, he joined Xiansheng Pharmaceutical Group as vice president and scientific officer. In 2013, he officially joined Yabao pharmaceutical, Served as president of Beijing Pharmaceutical Research Institute.
From large foreign pharmaceutical enterprises to domestic cro companies, and then to domestic local pharmaceutical companies, Wang Peng tried to practice the "open new drug innovation" model everywhere he went. He helped establish baijiahui in Xiansheng pharmaceutical, and then came to Yabao pharmaceutical to set up Suzhou Yabao R & D center. He also "trended" Chinese traditional pharmaceutical enterprises.
A month ago, as a representative of China's pharmaceutical industry, Wang Peng elaborated the R & D concept of open innovation of Yabao pharmaceutical industry with the audience at the APAC (Asia partnership conference of Pharmaceutical Associations) meeting. After the meeting, many entrepreneur representatives present expressed concern about Yabao's model and thought that this traditional pharmaceutical enterprise was doing some very novel things.
The APAC meeting and the APEC meeting initiated by the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Organization are not only similar in spelling, but also similar in purpose. The APAC organization was launched by Japan to promote cooperation between drug research and development enterprises in Asia and regions in mainland China, China, Taiwan and Korea.
"When APAC representatives came to China for research, they happened to visit Yabao pharmaceutical. After listening to the company's introduction to the open innovation model, they felt very interesting and thought Yabao was a particularly good case." Wang Peng said: "few people can think that Chinese traditional enterprises will take the initiative to join the queue of open innovation."
For a long time, domestic traditional large pharmaceutical enterprises mainly focus on the production of generic drugs. Many enterprises list the production of class 3.1 drugs as new drug projects. Most of the R & D departments of domestic enterprises have a single structure and do not have a huge team of scientists and fully functional laboratories like foreign large pharmaceutical enterprises. In this context, Yabao model has a lot to learn from.
Attempt on Chemical Innovative Drugs
"Yabao's model is actually not complicated. It is divided into three steps." Wang Peng said: "first, all drug research and development of Yabao is carried out through international cooperation, and the partners are global companies or academic institutions. The project is introduced through international cooperation, and then the project is pushed forward in China."
Yabao and the British Medical Research Institute have participated in the research and development of new drugs for Parkinson's disease, aiming to develop a drug with significantly less side effects than existing treatments. This is a thorny problem that Parkinson's disease researchers all over the world intend to solve. In addition, Albo has also worked with Eli Lilly to develop a new type of diabetes drug, which has completed phase I clinical trials in the United States.
Yabao has nearly ten innovative drug projects moving forward. Wang Peng said: "from 2014 to 2015, Yabao signed cooperative development agreements for eight projects, which should be the largest number of domestic pharmaceutical enterprises."
Yabao has signed so many projects. How to realize development after transferring to China? When many people hear about Yabao, they suddenly think of some children's proprietary Chinese medicine products standing at home, but few people understand Yabao's attempt to create new drugs with chemical drugs.
In fact, Yabao's investment in new drug research and development has continued to increase in recent years, so Wang Peng has several positions in Yabao. While participating in the operation of Yabao pharmaceutical, a traditional company, he also manages Suzhou Yabao, a joint venture innovation company.
There are many similarities between Suzhou Yabao and other small biotechnology companies founded by returned overseas researchers in China. Wang Peng said: "at present, Suzhou Yabao adopts the very popular virtual R & D cooperation mode in the United States in recent decades. It cooperates with cro companies, laboratories of well-known professors, and also hopes to cooperate with venture capital in the field of biomedicine."
This is the second step of open cooperation. Instead of taking the route of traditional project R & D, it will carry out extensive cooperation and exchange with domestic drug R & D institutions as much as possible.
When it comes to cooperation with well-known professors, Yabao has its own way of cooperation. The first is to establish an academic exchange mechanism with relevant university laboratories. Last year, Yabao transdermal drug delivery system laboratory and the cell physiology laboratory of Shanxi Medical University held an academic exchange meeting together. Secondly, Wang Peng said: "Yabao will put some drug experiments into university laboratories, and encourage university professors to write research results into papers for publication. This is a win-win process."
Next, for the transformation of project achievements, Yabao plans to transfer most products to the outside world. Wang Peng feels that the existing projects cannot be industrialized in Yabao, so in the end, they will focus on external transfer, which can also enable investors to get returns as soon as possible.
Taking such a third step proves that Yabao has bid farewell to the traditional mode of Chinese pharmaceutical, and it is possible to make huge transaction figures appear in the newspapers like large western pharmaceutical enterprises in the future.
Domestic enterprises enhance mutual trust
However, Yabao is not the place for Wang pengci to practice his ideal of open innovation. In every previous experience, he has tried his best to implement such a new drug innovation model. Wang Peng also hopes to make the cooperation between different research institutions in China more smooth in the future.
Wang Peng said that there are great difficulties in cooperation between domestic enterprises, which involves many issues, including law and mutual trust. In Europe and America, cooperation between all units is easy, whether enterprises, academic institutions or NGOs.
Yabao has three cooperation experiences with European and American universities in the past. One of them was a cooperation with a company established by a university professor who purchased a patent from the University in the name of the company and transferred the patent to Yabao; The other two were direct cooperation with the University, which transferred the patent right to Yabao.
"We haven't involved in patent cooperation with the University yet, because the patents in Chinese academic circles are still imperfect compared with those in foreign countries." Wang Peng said: "in addition to continuing to formulate more perfect patent laws, it also needs to cultivate mutual trust between industry and academia."
In order to promote the cooperation between different R & D units of new drugs in China, Wang Peng participated in the launch of the new drug founder club last year. In addition to the founders of new drug R & D companies, members of the club also welcome capital companies and other members who can promote the development of the club.
Wang Peng said with emotion: "the new drug founders' club should bring together local new drug makers in China, help and trust each other, so as to have the basis of cooperation."
Talking about the future development of the organization, Wang Peng looked forward to the sparks of cooperation among its members. "The cooperation between enterprises should go through a complex process of external contact, project search, project evaluation, financial and legal terms negotiation, and then contract signing and technology transfer. It attaches great importance to mutual trust among members. The new drug founder's Club brings together the heads of each new drug R & D link company, which is why it is named." Wang Peng said.
Wang Peng is full of expectations for the open innovation model of China's new drug R & D in the future. He believes that open innovation is very important for any unit.
The new drug founders' club will hold its annual meeting on June 16 this year, with the theme of "zero to one". This annual meeting will share with the participants how innovative drug enterprises should start a business in China, how to carry out foreign cooperation, and how to make Chinese entrepreneurial drugs based on China.
Wang Peng sincerely hopes that this year's annual meeting can promote the open innovation of new drugs in China.
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