The 5th Annual SABPA Pacific Forum on Life Science Alliances

November 7th, 2009

SAN DIEGO – On Nov 7th, 2009, the Sino-American Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Professionals Association (SABPA) organized another very successful event - the 5th SABPA Annual Pacific Forum on Life Science Alliance. This year’s theme was ‘Riding the Wave’, with the focus on the hottest topics in the life science industry across the Pacific Rim.

Co-chaired by Dr. Zhu Shen and Dr. Shuguang Zhu, this one day event included two keynote lectures and four panel discussions. Experts with various backgrounds discussed a broad range of subjects related to the current trends on drug discovery and shared their experiences and advice on how to ride the China ‘wave’.

The Forum started with opening remarks from Dr. Shuguang Zhu, Co-Chair of the SABPA Pacific Forum and Dr. Xiangming Fang, SABPA San Diego Chapter President. BIOCOM’s CEO, Mr. Joe Panetta then highlighted BIOCOM’s new Asia Pacific Initiatives to broaden its outreach in the Asia Pacific and to attract Chinese investments to Southern California. Morning keynote speaker, Mr. Ted Plafker, bestselling author and Beijing Correspondent for The Economist, then shared his view on how to profit in China based on his 20 years’ experience of living and doing business in China.

Dr. Ivor Royston, founding managing partner of Forward Ventures delivered the afternoon keynote lecture. Dr. Royston is a nationally recognized venture capitalist and has played an instrumental role in helping to create the San Diego biotechnology industry cluster. He gave a very insightful speech on the current trends and strategies of venture capital (VC) funding in the biopharmaceutical industry. Dr. Royston described the challenging investment environment currently faced by the bio-pharma industry, including the widening innovation gap and lack of funding for early-stage venture equity. He then pointed out that China will play an important role for funding and execution of preclinical studies that are presently under funded in the US. This talk was then followed by Dr. Peng Chen of Morrison & Foerster LLP, who gave a presentation on intellectual property. He offered his expert opinions on the new developments of intellectual property laws in both the US and China and how they impact life science companies across the Pacific.

The four panel discussions have enlisted many industry leaders with various backgrounds in science, law, business and finance for thorough overviews on different hot topics reflecting current trends. Each of the discussions generated in-depth discussions and audience participation.

The first panel focused on pharmaceutical and biotechnology development around the Pacific Rim. It was chaired by Dr. Ming Guo, Chairman of Ascentage Pharma, who provided a summary of recent developments in the industry and the early success stories. Dr Guo stated that new drug development by Asian countries is aiming at the global market. Each of the panelists then shared their different perspectives. Mr. Ian Wisenberg, SVP of ChinaBio highlighted his observations on the key growth drivers and the improving VC and initial public stock offering conditions in China. Chun-Lin Chen, CEO of Medicilon, explained how Medicilon evolved from providing simple chemical services in 2004 to the current integrated services including pre-clinical and biology contract research. Mr. Mario Pennisi of Queensland Clinical Trials Network stated that one of the reasons why Australia avoided a major recession was due to its strong trade relationship with China. He also highlighted some key trends for Australia in 2009. Dr. Sean Wang of the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) represented the biotech industry in Taiwan and described the history and leading roles of ITRI.

The second panel on global integrated R&D strategies was led by Dr. Hui Li, senior principle scientist of Pfizer. Several executives from China based Contract Research Organizations (CROs) including Yun He, VP of BioDuro and Charles Huang, VP of Sundia clearly pointed out a new trend of integrated service beyond traditional medicinal chemistry. Representatives from several major pharmaceutical companies such as Jennifer Hu (Director, Licensing and External Research of Merck), Sylvie Sakata (Senior Director, External Research Solutions of Pfizer) and Xiaoming Zou (Director, External Drug Discovery of GSK) mentioned a number of approaches that they deployed to leverage China’s resources to accelerate their drug discovery efforts by establishing exclusive CROs, collaborative partners, or even building up stand-alone R&D centers in China.

The third panel discussion involved a presentation given by the team from SuZhou BioBay Industrial Park, the first government delegation from China attending the Pacific forum. Dr. Hui Cai, VP of Wuxi AppTec was the session moderator. Mr. Minglong Ma and Ms. Yuwen Liu of SuZhou BioBay gave a very impressive presentation on how Suzhou BioBay offers a world-class infrastructure and multiple services, as well as a variety of incentives to support biotech companies. The BioBay has attracted some new start-up companies with San Diego roots.

The last panel consisted of outstanding professionals in both legal and biotechnology industries. The panel shared their insights on how to do business in the currently shifting regulatory, investment, and economic environment. It was led by Dr. Zhu Shen, CEO of BioForesight. Several seasoned patent lawyers from Foley & Lardner LLP (Stephen A. Bent) and Celera Corporation (Ben Wang Esq.) praised the much improved China intellectual property protection laws and regulations, and offered their expert opinions on how to maneuver effectively between the US and China, two very different intellectual property systems. As China’s economy continues to grow, many speakers predicted that China will become a major drug market, beyond just being a hotbed for drug R&D. Mr. Jeffery Lang, VP of Business Development from SciClone showed that most of their hepatitis drug ZADAXIN revenue was generated from China.

The forum attracted more than 300 attendees in life sciences and business fields from various regions, including southern California, New York City, Taiwan, China and Australia. This successful event was the culmination of excellent teamwork of over 50 SABPA volunteers who worked extremely diligently throughout the preparation to make this happen.  We want to thank all of our generous corporate & event sponsors, event partners, media sponsors, as well as the SABPA Pacific Forum organizing committee, fundraising and supporting teams.  We look forward to seeing everyone at our event next year and promise that it will be an insightful meeting with open discussion like this one. The event photos and some of slides can be enjoyed here: http://www.sabpa.org/web/news_details.php?ID=200

SABPA (Sino-American Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Professionals Association) is a 501(C) (3) nonprofit organization founded in early 2002 by professionals and scholars from local Chinese community in San Diego. SAPBA invites all scholars, students and professionals with any origin who are working in, engaged in, or interested in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry to join the organization. For more information, please visit the SABPA website at www.sabpa.org.