Shanghai's Life Sciences Ecosystem Fascinates UK Firms at London Life Sciences Week

Shanghai's thriving life sciences ecosystem has emerged as a main focal point among UK enterprises during the London Life Sciences Week that is running from Nov. 16 to tomorrow.

A delegation from Shanghai, comprising officials from the municipal commerce and science commissions and several biomedical companies, hosted the Shanghai Biomedical Industry Promotion Conference at the invitation of business growth and destination agency London & Partners and MedCity, the life sciences cluster organization for London and the Greater South East.

Trade in goods between Shanghai and the United Kingdom approached CNY97.5 billion (USD13.7 billion) last year, Zhou Lan, deputy director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, said at the conference.

More than two-thirds of UK companies in China have chosen Shanghai as their local headquarters, Zhou noted, adding that the city is strengthening its biomedical industry foundation by leveraging its Five Centers development strategy. It has attracted nearly half of China's fifth-generation network research talent, 40 percent of integrated circuit experts, and one-third of artificial intelligence professionals.

"Global cities' life sciences assessment reports show that Shanghai has entered the world's top 10 in this field, transitioning from manufacturing to frontier innovation," Ivana Poparic, head of cluster development at MedCity, told Yicai.

With its strength in basic research and incubation, London complements Shanghai's scalability and clinical resources, Poparich said, expressing strong interest from UK companies in exploring efficient Chinese market access pathways from Shanghai.

MedCity is collaborating with Shanghai authorities and the UK Department for Business and Trade to streamline market entry processes for UK firms, including establishing offices and research and development centers, and promoting clinical trial partnerships.

China has great advantages in rapid drug development at lower costs, said Ryan Geiser, co-founder and chief executive officer of biotech startup Axiom Therapeutics. "Given the highly internationalized nature of the global pharmaceutical supply chain, collaboration with Shanghai is an imperative."

London-based Axiom specializes in covalent drug development using computational chemistry and artificial intelligence. It is conducting some drug tests in Shanghai through local contract research organizations.

Axiom's team is evaluating further expansion in Shanghai, including establishing wet labs and hiring local researchers to shorten the overall cycle from drug design to validation, Geiser noted.