The 24th Beijing International Healthcare Industry Forum kicked off in Beijing on Oct 13, 2021.

At the opening ceremony, Xu Qiang, director-general of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, discussed the effectiveness of the "Beijing Action Plan for Accelerating Collaborative Innovation in Medicine and Health (2018-2020)" and gave a keynote report on the future work layout.

Xu Qiang, director-general of the Beijing Municipal Science and Technology Commission and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, delivers a speech at the forum. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

According to Xu, since Beijing implemented the Action Plan in 2018, the biomedical industry has achieved a series of major achievements: it maintained a double-digit growth rate in 2018 and 2019, and reached 220 billion yuan ($34.23 billion) in value in 2020. Its industrial investment in fixed assets amounted to 6.3 billion yuan.

In addition, 42 key projects including AstraZeneca North Center and Hengrui Pharma North Center have settled in Beijing.

Important achievements have also been made in COVID-19 vaccine  research. Two inactivated vaccines have been approved for markets or emergency use in more than 100 countries around the world, and a total of 3.4 billion vaccine doses have been supplied.

Ian Carmichael, vice president of Bioprocessing China, Merck Life Science shares his views at the forum. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

The Beijing International Healthcare Industry Forum has been held  23 times, with more than 200 exchange meetings. 

More than 1,000 participants from multinational companies in the pharmaceutical and health field, heads of top 100 domestic pharmaceutical companies, and experts from colleges and universities have been invited to the event. 

The list of major innovative products approved since the implementation of the Action Plan and major projects that have been implemented, and a list of outstanding clinical institutions that support the development of Beijing's medical and health industry, were released at the forum on Oct 14.

From Oct 14 to 15, sponsors of the forum also arranged a series of events such as special group meetings, roadshows, discussions related to stem cell technology and regenerative medicine, artificial intelligence and medical health integration development, international COVID-19 vaccine research and development, medical research and development services CXO and industrial ecological system construction. 

Nahed Ahmed, former vice president of R&D at Amgen Inc. makes a speech at the forum. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn