Greg B.Scott in the 10th China Bio-industry Convention [Photo by Newsgd.com]
The just ended 3-day China Bio-industry Convention saw a brainstorming among world’s top specialists in the field. And Greg Scott, President of ChinaBio, is one of the attendees.
“I’m impressed by the global focus in the event and want to hold our own conference here in the future,” said Greg Scott.
Scott is definitely a witness of the development of Guangdong’s biotech industry. And his company, ChinaBio, is a consulting company that has partnered nearly 100 life science companies from U.S., Europe and APAC with those in China since 2007.
To encourage investment and cooperation, ChinaBio has already organized over 30 conferences in China. And Greg Scott said a new record was set in their partnering conference held in Guangdong’s Zhuhai this year.
“We had nearly 1700 one to one meetings during the conference. It was the largest number we have ever had,” said Scott, “the attendees of these meetings included our western clients and the Chinese companies that have significant interest in them.”
In fact, ChinaBio did their first event in Guangzhou of Guangdong in 2009. At that time, it was of a rather small scale. But this year, the Zhuhai’s conference attracted nearly 900 specialists and entrepreneurs from the renowned pharmaceutical manufacturers like Pfizer, Bayer and Merck as well as smaller companies worldwide.
“When we were talking about the conference with Zhuhai, they were very enthusiastic because they have an ongoing pharmaceutical park project,” said Scott, “our company is now talking about cooperation with Zhuhai. And one of our client is looking at moving to the park.”
Greg B.Scott (middle) attended a panel discussion during the convention. [Photo provided to Newsgd.com]
Greg Scott and his companies’ experience is one of the examples showcasing the development of the bio-industry in Guangdong. The province is focusing on the development of its bio-tech industry, especially during the 13th Five-Year-Plan period.
According to statistics unveiled during the forum, the output of bio-industry in Guangdong exceeded 300 billion yuan in 2016, and is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan by 2020.
Apart from the Zhuhai’s pharmaceutical park, Greg Scott said he is also very familiar with the bio-island in Guangzhou and knew that GE and Beigene were building biologic manufacturing plants here.
“I think the industry is really starting to come up now in Guangdong,” he said.
Talking about the elements to drive overseas biotech enterprises, Scott said it was important for the province to create an eco-system of support which includes investment, policies, business partners, talents and etc.
“Developing drug takes lots of money so it’s very difficult for a foreign biotech company to enter the market without help,” said Scott, “but I see policies are good here and things really start to accelerate.”
