Wu Dong, President of Johnson & Johnson Asia Pacific Innovation Center: five challenges facing China's open innovation

Source: bioexploration from June 8 to June 10, 2015, the 17th Shanghai International Symposium on biotechnology and medicine with the theme of "win win cooperation to build a biomedical innovation center with global influence" was held in Shanghai International Conference Center Hundreds of business, government, investment and academic circles from all over the world discussed the future development trend and achievement transformation of life science At the opening ceremony, Liu Qin, deputy inspector of Shanghai Municipal Commission of science and technology, said that in 2014, the global pharmaceutical market was about US $1 trillion, with an annual growth rate of about 5% - 6% New technologies, breakthroughs and applications are springing up in the field of biomedicine Cancer immunotherapy and stem cell technology, gene detection and diagnosis technology, wearable devices and big data, mobile medicine and other technologies will become the future development direction of biomedical field This year, Shanghai launched 22 opinions on accelerating the construction of a global influential innovation center, which ushered in new development opportunities for biomedical R & D and industrial development in Shanghai Shanghai will actively focus on the development of new technologies and industries such as stem cells, wearable devices, mobile medicine and immunotherapy, and support the research and development of corresponding cutting-edge technologies and key products After the opening ceremony, Chen Kaixian, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, presided over the keynote speech of the conference Mr Wu Dong, President of Asia Pacific innovation center of Johnson & Johnson Group in the United States, delivered a wonderful report entitled "innovation creates medical and health industry" The report provides an in-depth understanding of how Johnson & Johnson can achieve the strategic initiatives of landmark innovation in the field of medicine based on the actual situation of different countries and regions Innovative drugs are gradually becoming a new force in the pharmaceutical industry At present, China has 110 million aging population, accounting for 8% of the total population It is estimated that China will have 229 million aging population, accounting for 16% of the total population by 2030 These figures reflect the development of national economy and the improvement of living standards, but also bring great challenges and pressures to the health industry In a relatively long period of time, generic drugs and biological analogues occupy a dominant position in the field of medical and health care; however, innovative drugs are gradually becoming a new force in the pharmaceutical industry However, as we all know, the development of innovative drugs is not a simple project According to the data, the development of an innovative drug will take about 15-20 years, with an investment of 2.66 billion US dollars Whether there is enough economic strength to bear the process of innovative drug research and development is an unavoidable fact It is worth mentioning that, according to statistics, there are nearly 100 million rich families in China in 2014 (i.e the annual income is more than 100000), which is expected to reach 280 million by 2025 These people's requirements for health level will make them one of the pillar forces in the research and development of innovative drugs Mr Wu Dong, the five elements of the open innovation ecosystem, said that the future innovation environment will inevitably need a new ecosystem, including venture capital, large enterprises, universities, small enterprises, governments, etc The open innovation ecosystem proposed by Johnson & Johnson innovation center contains the following five elements (see the figure below): first, top scientific level is the foundation of innovation In the past decade (2001-2013), the number of Chinese publications in science, nature, cell, NEJM and PNAs has increased by 6.3 times, and the number of citations has increased by nearly 7.3 times These growth figures are gratifying, but there is still a big gap compared with developed countries such as the United States In 2013, the United States published about 10 times as many articles (about 5400 articles) in the above five magazines as in China Second, different from other industries, biomedical industry needs not only people with innovative spirit, but also people who are familiar with the medical industry and have rich experience In the past decade, China's policies of "one thousand people plan" and "one hundred people plan" have attracted a large number of scholars with overseas education background and work experience back home In addition, funding and policy support are essential In the first half of this year alone, the United States has invested 40 billion dollars in the medical innovation industry In the open innovation ecosystem, in addition to the leading role of international pharmaceutical giants, more and more local enterprises are rising, showing their innovation ability in the field of medicine, such as Hengrui medicine, Baiji Shenzhou, Shenzhen micro core, etc However, in general, there are still many problems and challenges in the commercialization process of China's pharmaceutical industry To solve these problems, Mr Wu Dong summarized five challenges of China's open innovation (see the figure below): 1 Research focused academia: at present, most academic institutions in China focus on research, and the open innovation environment hopes to provide a platform for some researchers who want to go to the industry 2 Experienced CEOs and key leaders: Innovation in the pharmaceutical industry requires a large number of experienced experts, as well as some new researchers In order to realize China's open innovation, we need some local scholars to join in 3 Strategic investments: Although investors have shown some enthusiasm for the pharmaceutical industry at present, there are not many investors willing to start investment in the early stage of drug development 4 Translational strength: at present, China has formed a very strong cro environment, which is very important for new drug innovation However, there is still a period of 0-3 years from "thesis" to "entering cro for technological innovation" Among them, some schools "over protect" patents, to some extent, hindering the process of transformation 5 Industrial, regulatory, funding policy: how to formulate more reasonable and driving policies is still a major challenge in realizing China's open innovation Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center's unique concept: as the world's largest health care company, Johnson & Johnson achieved profit growth for 31 consecutive years with a sales volume of US $73.4 billion in 2014, bringing growth returns to shareholders for 52 consecutive years The biggest force that J & J can achieve such amazing results is innovation So what is Johnson & Johnson's definition of innovation? In his report, Mr Wu Dong quoted Dr Paul Stoffels, Johnson's CSO: "catalyzing innovation at Johnson & Johnson is about creating strong networks of people who can combine resources, J & J has four innovation centers all over the world Their slogan is to let these scientists be discovered "as far a way as possible, as long as possible" The company hopes that these scientists can continue to uphold their advantages and characteristics in the original environment, rather than immediately invest in the environment of a large company to forget the original innovation ideas and spirit At the end of the report, Mr Wu Dong said that Johnson believed in "a great idea can come from anywhere".