Biopharmaceutical Industrial Zone in the United States:Development Experience and Its Enlightenment

Xu kai, Sun Lihua＊

(1.School of Business Administration, Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, Shenyang 110016, China;2.Huaihai Institute of Technology, Lianyungang 222005, China)

Abstract Objective To promote the development of biopharmaceutical industrial zone in China. Methods Development characteristics of biopharmaceutical industrial zone in the United States was analyzed, combined with the current status in China, to put forward some suggestions for the construction of biopharmaceutical industrial zone in China. Results and Conclusion Measures are proposed to promote the construction of biopharmaceutical industrial zone in China, including scientific planning of the zone's positioning and function, establishing a diversif i ed investment and fi nancing system, strengthening the construction of innovation cooperation network,providing good innovative service, focusing on the cultivation and introduction of talents and creating a good environment and cultures in the zone.

Keywords: biopharmacy; industrial cluster; American experience

1 Development of biomedical industrial park in the United States

The United States is the most important agglomeration area of global bio-industry. At present,it has formed nine major bio-pharmaceutical industrial clusters, including New York, Washington-Baltimore,Boston, San Francisco, North Carolina Triangle Research Zone, Seattle, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Santiago, which has obvious agglomeration effect. The nine major biomedical industrial clusters are the most concentrated metropolitan areas in the modern biomedical industry of the United States and the specialized biotechnology research parks such as Stanford Biotechnology Research Park, North Carolina Research Triangle Park, Massachusetts Biotechnology Research Park and Virginia Biotechnology Research Park have been formed[1-3].Meanwhile, it has gathered more than three-quarters of the modern biomedical enterprises in the United States, and 10 times as many biomedical enterprises as the other 42 metropolitan areas. The funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is eight times that of the other 42 metropolitan areas. The venture capital obtained in biomedical field is 30 times that of other 42 metropolitan areas and the level of commercialization is 20 times that of the other 42 metropolitan areas.

2 Analysis of the development characteristics of American biomedical industrial parks

After the successful establishment of Stanford Research Park, the successive construction of biomedical industrial parks in the United States drew on its experience and formed certain development characteristics[4-9].

2.1 A clear goal and orientation

In the early stage of construction of biomedical industrial parks, clear development goals and orientations were formulated, including promoting regional economic and urban development as well as increasing social employment opportunities. For example, the goal and orientation of Stanford Research Park was to establish a research-oriented industrial park, which promoted the close integration of industry and universities, so as to achieve higher returns. North Carolina Research Triangle Garden was established as an economic development plan of the state government. Its goal was to promote the upgrading of industrial structure, attract high-tech enterprises,increase social employment and develop the state economy. The project and industry orientation of the park were market-oriented, following the mainstream of world science and technology development. Since its establishment in the early 1960s, the research field has focused on chemistry. Then, it has been transformed into the fi elds of environmental science,microelectronics, network engineering and biological science emerged in the 1990s according to the changes of world science and technology.

2.2 Government-enterprise-university joint management model

Biomedical industrial parks in the United States were generally built by foundations, private enterprises, banks and the government. Investors jointly formed a board of directors or a council(excluding the government), and employed professional management teams for enterprise management. The government didn't participate in the specific management and operation of the park.It was mainly responsible for macro-planning and coordination, participating in the construction by means of financial input and stipulating the nature of the park, playing a guiding and regulating role in science and technology. This mode is conducive to stimulating the vitality of universities and enterprises,giving full play to the guidance and coordination role of the government, and avoiding excessive interference of government administrative power.

2.3 Close cooperation among industry, university and research

The support and service contents of biomedical industrial park in the United States mainly include:setting up a special agency for coordinating the relationship between universities, research institutions,investors and enterprises; serving the development of the park industry, planning and building public infrastructure or various professional service facilities to provide public management and service for the parks and researchers, building biomedical business incubators to provide business incubation services. At the same time it also provides business development strategy support, business consulting, entrepreneur training and other services.

The research projects of American universities and research institutes are usually set up based on market demand. And the venture capitalists and enterprises will involve in the process of them.Generally speaking, there is a close cooperation among universities, enterprises and investors, and the results of projects involving three parties usually have higher market value and are easier to transfer.The United States has a sound technology transfer system for scientif i c and technological achievements.There are University Science Park and Technology Transfer Off i ce, which are responsible for the transfer of research results. From the strategic level of national science and technology economy, the United States has a national technology transfer center. National technology transfer agencies at all levels are very familiar with the needs of the market or enterprises,and they have the ability to evaluate the technology achievements and patent value to be transferred.According to the evaluation results, they can find the most suitable enterprises to accept the results, so as to complete the technology transfer. The United States attached great importance to the development of science and technology intermediaries. The professional advisory committees composed of highlevel experts, entrepreneurs and lawyers participate in all aspects of technology transfer to promote the rapid transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

2.4 Encouraging venture capital and other forms of investment

At present, the American biomedical industrial parks have formed a diversified investment and financing system, including grants or subsidies from the federal or state governments, large enterprises,venture capital, loans and foundations etc. According to the different stages of project development, different investment channels are selected to ensure the effective use of funds and the successful completion of the project, and they will ultimately achieve product transformation. Local governments in the United States are the main sources of funds in the early stage of the establishment of biomedical industry parks.Funds are mainly used to support universities, nonprofit service organizations, business incubators and infrastructure construction of the parks. Generally,no direct investment is made in the park projects.In addition, in order to solve the financial problems of small start-ups, the small business administration under the government will provide fi nancial services such as loan guarantees. Except for the government's investment, the main source of funds for park enterprises includes a large number of venture capital institutions. The funding from federal or state governments as well as foundations usually account for the main part of funding sources for basic research in the initial stage of a project. When the projects have certain results and complete the initial research, the venture capital or large companies usually invest after they evaluate the results of projects.

2.5 Perfect innovation network system

Innovation system is the motive force to ensure the sustainable development of the park. It mainly includes four bodies: universities and scientific research institutions, enterprises and enterprise groups, government and its management departments,and intermediary service institutions. Among them,universities and scientific research institutions are the sources of innovation, enterprises and enterprise groups are the main innovators, the government and management departments are the organizers of the innovation network in the park, and intermediary service institutions are the “glue” of innovation.They form an innovation network system covering production, education and research through effective coordination, interaction and connection. Biomedical industry relies heavily on knowledge sources and technological innovation that is different from other high-tech industries. The cooperation between enterprises and universities or scientific research institutions is the most important part in vertical dimension, while the technological exchange and cooperation between enterprises is the second in horizontal dimension. Then the innovative structure of bio-pharmaceutical industry cluster centered on knowledge sources such as universities and scientif i c research institutes will be formed. All the nine major biomedical industrial clusters in the United States have such remarkable characteristics. For example,Boston has brought together some famous universities and research institutes such as Boston University and Harvard University. These regions have brought together world-class biomedical professionals,mastered international advanced biomedical technology, providing talents and technical support for the successful development of the park.

2.6 Good talent attraction and innovative cultural atmosphere

American science parks encourage and attract entrepreneurs to start their own businesses with favorable industrial policies. They attract and cultivate entrepreneurs, professional and technical personnel by setting up post-doctoral mobile stations of joint ventures of universities or research institutes and holding professional academic forums. Compound talents with both professional accomplishments and development capabilities can be cultivated by this way. Great importance is attached to the cultivation of innovative culture, which includes risk-taking spirit,tolerance of failure and competitive consciousness.

2.7 Advantage of good location

The regional choice for the construction of biomedical industrial parks in the United States generally has the following characteristics: Areas close to technology, talent and capital concentration,such as university towns, independent research and development institutions, financial centers and so on will be chosen; Biomedical enterprises are relatively concentrated in the region, which is convenient to make good use of superior resources and markets;They must have good foundations of biomedical industry and they are close to the biomedical consumer market, such as large medical institutions,drug trading market and so on.

2.8 Linkage and complementary between leading enterprises and new ventures

Every year, a number of new biomedical enterprises emerge in American biomedical industrial parks. Their advantages lie in their creativity,growth and rapid market response, which can drive the development direction of new technologies in industrial parks. Another kind of enterprises which play an irreplaceable exemplary role in the development of the industrial parks is the leading enterprises. In recent years, these two types of enterprises have established close cooperation through alliances and other means.In the cooperation between the two parties, the new small and medium-sized enterprises develop rapidly,some of which gradually turn into large or mediumsized enterprises, or merge with large enterprises.At the same time, universities and large enterprises will continue to promote the birth of new small and medium-sized enterprises. Thus the development of industrial parks enters a virtuous circle, which will constantly promote the development of industrial parks, and increase investment returns and the effectiveness of R&D.

3 Enlightenment on the construction of China's biomedical industrial park

Based on the analysis of the characteristics and successful experience of American biomedical industrial parks, combined with the actual situation in China, the following enlightenment is drawn on the development of China's biomedical industrial park.

3.1 Scientif i c planning of the park's positioning and function

From the perspective of the development of biomedical industrial parks in the United States,we can see that the government and the market are the two driving forces to promote the construction of the parks. China's biomedical industrial parks are dominated by the government, lacking selforganizational power. Therefore, the government needs to create conditions to ensure the sustainable development of the parks. Besides, the government should conduct sufficient demonstration and investigation before planning and constructing the parks. It is important to research whether there are biomedical universities and research institutions around the site selected for the parks because they can provide intellectual resources such as technology and achievements for the parks. Moreover, there must be a biomedical industry base and the surrounding traff i c environment and living environment are suitable for the development of biomedical industry. After determining the suitable area for the construction of bio-pharmaceutical industrial park, combining with local resources and advantages of biomedical industry,the industrial orientation and development direction of the parks are planned as a whole.

3.2 Encouraging venture capital and establishing a diversif i ed investment and fi nancing system

The characteristics of the biomedical industry determine that the development of its products requires a lot of capital investment. The successful development of biomedical industrial parks in the United States is inseparable from the involvement of a large number of venture capital institutions. The funds of the U.S. government are used for the basic research and early development stages of universities and research institutions. When the products complete the preliminary research and achieve certain research results, a large number of e venture capital institutions will actively intervene, which rapidly promotes the development and listing of innovative varieties.At present, China's venture capital institutions are unwilling to invest in the development of risky innovative drugs because they lack investment experience and professional knowledge, which is exactly what they should change in the future.Therefore, a fi nancial system such as a venture capital company or a venture fund or a small and mediumsized enterprise development fund, which is guided by the local government investment in the biopharmaceutical industrial park, should be established as soon as possible. At the same time, venture capital experts in the biomedical field should be cultivated who can understand both the professional knowledge of biomedical industry and finance. In order to realize the early development stage of basic research and projects invested by the government,venture capital institutions can focus on supporting the commercialization process of technology and products, and ensure the demand for large amounts of funds in the process of research and development of biomedical products.

3.3 Strengthening the construction of innovation cooperation network

The innovation of biomedical industrial park cannot be achieved only by the concentration of enterprises, but also by the interaction and inf i ltration of universities, research institutes, enterprises,governments and relevant supporting institutions.The site selected for the parks should be close to universities and scientific research institutions.By introducing universities and scientific research institutions into the parks in the form of branch schools and research centers, the technological radiation effect of universities and scientif i c research institutions on the park will be strengthened. The interaction between universities, scientific research institutions and parks should be improved so that a platform for industrialization and mercerization of scientific research achievements can be set up..In addition, we should give full play to the role of science and technology intermediaries to break down information barriers and integrate information resources of universities and scientific research institutions. The construction of public platforms and open databases of science and technology information must be built to realize the sharing of science and technology information in the parks.

3.4 Providing good innovative service for enterprises in the park

The United States provides a full range of services for high-tech enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, to promote their rapid development and growth. Therefore, China should use business incubator and other means to provide all round services such as policies, funds,professional and technical services, staff training, life services for the small and medium-sized enterprises in the park so as to reduce the start-up costs and risks. The construction of carriers such as R&D institutions and public service platforms should be vigorously promoted. Meanwhile, accounting firms,various consulting companies, financial institutions,technology trading markets and other innovative service enterprises should be introduced to the parks as well. Lastly, the construction of talent service platforms and other security systems for providing good services for high-level talent entrepreneurship,children's enrollment, medical treatment, residence and life should be enhanced.

3.5 Focusing on the cultivation and introduction of talents

The biomedical industrial park is not only the high-tech area, but also the training base of highquality talents. The United States attaches great importance to the cultivation and introduction of high-quality talents, attracting talents through relevant policies, creating a good working and living environment with financial support. The shortage of innovative talents is also the barrier of the development of China's biomedical industrial parks.Cultivating and attracting high-quality talents and forming a talent team commensurate with the scale of the parks is an important means to improve the operation eff i ciency of China's biomedical industrial parks. China should give full play to the policy advantages of the national, provincial and municipal talent introduction plans to attract the leading scientif i c and technological talents. Through the construction of platforms such as academician workstations and postdoctoral research workstations, enterprises will jointly train talents with universities and scientific research institutions. The high-level talents will be introduced fl exibly through policy activities such as colleges and universities tour or technical special commissioners.

3.6 Creating a good environment and culture in the park

American biomedical industrial parks generally have perfect infrastructure, complete professional service platforms and intermediary service agencies,and this good living environment can retain and attract talents. In terms of culture, the park has formed a cultural atmosphere that encourages innovation, entrepreneurship and new enterprises and a perfect information exchange platform. Therefore,the construction of China's biomedical industrial park should not only improve infrastructure, but also introduce the supporting professional service institutions and intermediary service institutions to encourage innovation and cultivate a good culture of innovation and entrepreneurship.