In the Baita Block of Xianju Economic Development Zone in the upper reaches of Yong’an River, the medical equipment town in Xianju has undergone amazing changes in just six years: building construction is heard endlessly, more and more enterprises are settling in with bags, popularity is growing, and countless “sophisticated” products are born here, and then sold to domestic and foreign markets.
The exponential increase in the added value of high-tech industries highlights the vitality of the local medical device industry.
Empowered by science and technology, driven by innovation. In just a few years, Xianju medical equipment industry has grown from nothing to more than 40 enterprises, and has more than 100 million yuan of enterprises and hidden champions in sub industries from small to large. From a single enterprise to Taizhou Medical Equipment Industrial Park, and then to the cultivation and creation of provincial medical equipment characteristic towns, Xianju has walked out the development path of “science and innovation fund+characteristic industry+innovation platform” step by step.
Lock elements and gather scientific and technological talents
At one time, the overall economic output of Xianju was small, the industrial level was not high, and the constraints of talent, land, capital and other factors were relatively prominent. With the steady development of the county economy, building an innovation driven ecosystem in line with the local reality has become a must answer in front of Xianju.
At the same time, the medical equipment industry with less industrial land, less pollution, high scientific and technological content, high average tax output value per mu and large development space has entered the vision of Xianju.
“In the medical device industry, China has many ‘neck’ problems, and the solution of these problems will bring a huge market for the medical device industry.” The head of Xianju County Science and Technology Bureau said, “Therefore, to develop the medical device industry, science and technology and talents are the key factors.”
As early as in the “13th Five Year Plan”, Xianju proposed to build a medical device town. Supported by science and technology, and supported by policy preference, it has successively issued several policies, such as Several Opinions on Promoting the Development of High end Medical Device Industry, Ten Policies for Gathering High end Medical Device Talents in Xianju County, Several Opinions on Accelerating Scientific and Technological Innovation to Promote High quality Development, and Thirty five New Policies for Talents in Xianju County, Take out “policy dry goods”, give play to “ecological advantages”, and rally to support the development and growth of the medical device industry.
In August this year, the fourth China Xianju Global Medical Device Entrepreneurship and Innovation Competition, “Qizhi Ceyuan · Medical Device Town”, was officially launched in 2021. The competition has been held in Shanghai, Hangzhou, Shenzhen and other places. This year is the fourth, attracting nearly 400 talent projects from around the world, laying a solid talent foundation for the development of Xianju medical device industry.
“Saining Biotech focuses on R&D and production of high-end biological experiment consumables. In 2019, Dr. Ding Xianming, the founder of the company, won the support of Taizhou ‘500 Elite Plan’ talent project. After more than a year of preparation, the company was put into operation in Xianju Medical Equipment Industrial Park this year. After putting into operation, the revenue has grown rapidly. Now the monthly output value has exceeded 10 million yuan, and it is expected to achieve an annual output value of 500 million yuan in two years.” Yu Shifeng, chief operating officer of Zhejiang Saining Biotechnology Co., Ltd. said.
In addition, Xianju has also made a breakthrough by creating an “enclave” in the field of surgery, implemented the development mode of “incubating outside and transforming in Xianju”, and constantly integrated into the Yangtze River Delta to build high-level industries and effectively gather innovative resources. On June 17 this year, Xianju – Shanghai Life Science and Technology Collaborative Innovation Center was officially unveiled.
It is reported that there are 7 school local cooperation platforms, including Zhejiang University and Zhejiang University of Technology, built in Xianju; 44 high-end medical equipment projects were introduced, and 17 talent projects of Taizhou “500 Elite Plan” were introduced; It has introduced nearly 70 high-end talents above doctor level and more than 200 invention patents. It has become an important gathering place for innovative medical devices and a gathering highland for innovative talents in the province.
Full chain service, press the accelerator for enterprise development
Cell culture solution and cell cryopreservation solution, disposable tracheal intubation kit for general anesthesia, precision medical catheter and its derived cardiovascular interventional medical device products and industrialization projects… When entering the medical device town, there are a variety of products in the display cabinet, and the product features of each enterprise are fresh.
Looking at the medical equipment town: 3.47 square kilometers of planning area, complete roads, drainage and other infrastructure, complete production and living facilities, town living room, administrative service center, and maker space. Here, scientific research achievements are transformed into products of different sizes and functions in the workshop.
“We have been stationed in the town and put into production for half a year. Recently, we applied for a new factory because of the expansion of production, and the follow-up equipment is being followed up.” Wu Youmei, General Manager of Xianju Xingzhi Technology Co., Ltd.
In this way, there are many enterprises that will soon expand their production and put them into production after settling down.
Why can the enterprise be successfully “accelerated” when it is put into operation and produced in the medical equipment town? Town service is the key factor.
The medical device industry has the characteristics of long research and development period, large initial investment and strong market supervision. In this regard, the local government and Lanwan Capital jointly set up a life and health science and innovation fund to invest in medical device seed enterprises through the fund, introduce and cultivate high-quality projects with high growth. At present, the entire fund has invested 20 projects in total, with a cumulative investment of 275 million yuan.
In addition, in order to improve the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, in the past two years, Xianju – Medical Device Research Institute of School of Biology and Instrumentation of Zhejiang University and Xianju – School of Medical Device Innovation and Transformation of Shanghai University of Technology have been jointly established with Zhejiang University and Shanghai University of Technology respectively, which have realized the practical operation and helped enterprises to carry out technical services such as technology breakthrough, project introduction, personnel training, etc. In order to strengthen the service capacity and effect, Taizhou Bay Innovative Medical Device Service Station was officially established in 2019, integrating direct approval, scientific innovation and empowerment, financial subsidies, transformation and resumption, resource sharing, and cluster cultivation, to achieve “one-stop support for the development of small and micro enterprises, one-stop solution for problems, one-stop help for difficulties”, and to “replace enterprises with government”. At present, it has coordinated more than 200 provincial and municipal medical experts to provide services, organized 8 training courses, trained more than 1200 enterprises, and collected and solved 165 difficult problems of enterprises.
With continuously innovative products, enterprises, extended industrial chains and innovation chains, the town’s entrepreneurship and innovation ecology has been formed. The R&D investment of national high-tech enterprises, such as Youyi Medical and Yiliankang, has exceeded 10%. In August this year, the innovation center of medical equipment town was included in the municipal science and technology enterprise incubator, achieving the breakthrough of “Xianju Zero”.
“Next, we will take the opportunity of creating a provincial high-tech industrial park for green medicine to actively plan major innovation carriers in the medical equipment field and contribute scientific and technological strength to achieve common prosperity for Xianju.” The head of the county science and technology bureau said.
(Source: Xianju County Science and Technology Bureau)