On July 17, the opening ceremony of Dongguan ZLJ Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “ZLJ Biotechnology”) was hosted in Linrun Intelligent Valley. At the same time, Harbin Institute of Technology-First Condor Joint Laboratory of Cell Drug Research and Development, Songshan Lake (First Condor) Regional Cell Preparation Center and Songshan Lake (First Condor) Comprehensive Cell Bank were officially unveiled.
Establishing subsidiaries to resolve difficulties in “stranglehold” technology
Located in Songshan Lake, Guangdong First Condor Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “First Condor Biotechnology”) is a biomedicine company that combines cell technology development, manufacturing, storage and clinical application. Merely 2 years after its registration in 2019, the company was awarded national high-tech enterprise. ZLJ Biotechnology is a subsidiary of First Condor Group, mainly dealing with research and application of regenerative medicine.
At the opening ceremony, Zhong Shizhen, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences expressed congratulations to ZLJ Biotechnology for its opening through video conference.
According to Lu Gang, Member of the Party Working Committee of Songshan Lake and Chief Economist of the Management Committee, the industrial park has been attaching great importance to the development of biotechnology industry. With the comprehensive commencement of construction of the pilot zone (Songshan Lake Science City) of the comprehensive national science center in the Greater Bay Area, life science will also become an important development orientation.
“Two years later, we deploy a new company in Songshan Lake again, hoping to collaborate with neighboring enterprises to improve the ecological circle of the biotechnology industry.” Xie Haitao, Founder of First Condor Group and CEO of ZLJ Biotechnology, expressed that the new company will focus on regenerative medicine, making greater contributions to the development of the industry and health of mankind.
At present, regenerative medicine has developed into two important branches of stem cell and tissue engineering. Among which stem cell research is the foundation, while First Condor Group has achieved certain results in aspects such as chondroblast stem cell treatment of Osteoarthritis.
“ZLJ Biotechnology will share with its R&D achievements with First Condor Group. Building on this, it will advance to the field of tissue engineering.” Xie Haitao pointed out that in the future, the new company need to focus on developing frontier fields such as organoid, 3D bioprinting and organs-on-chips, overcoming difficulties in “stranglehold” technology. Among which, development of organoid will provide new tools for disease model and drug screening model as well as new source for organ transplantation. Developing 3D bioprinting technology can serve to resolve tissue and organ vascularization, realizing building of multiple function of vascularization tissues and organs such as liver, heart, bone and muscle.
ZLJ Biotechnology has so far established three platforms of cell storage, cell treatment technology and cell anti-aging technology with its business covering the upper, middle and lower reaches of the cell industry. The health management services provided by the company is able to provide various anti-aging plan and management plan for chronic diseases for healthy, suboptimal healthy people and patients.
Deploying new platforms to drive development of the industry chain
The opening ceremony saw the successive unveiling of Harbin Institute of Technology-First Condor Joint Laboratory of Cell Drug Research and Development, Songshan Lake (First Condor) Regional Cell Preparation Center and Songshan Lake (First Condor) Comprehensive Cell Bank.
It is said that the laboratory will fully utilize the university-enterprise collaboration industry-university integration platform to develop high-quality cell drug; the regional cell preparation center aims to build a large cell processing and preparation center with unified standards within effective radius of transportation, proving medical institutes and research institutes in the region with cell preserving, preparation and standardized cell treatment quality control system services; while the comprehensive cell bank represents infrastructure for cell resources such as preservation of adult stem cell of multiple organ sources, induced pluripotent stem cell and immune cell, and it will also provide powerful support for treatment of stubborn diseases, recovery of acute injury and drug screening.
“Biomedicine represents the orientation for future development. We wish to collaborate with peers in the industry to grow the industry.” Xie Haitao said.
At present, Songshan Lake is home to more than 400 biotechnology enterprises, covering areas such as biomedicine and medical equipment. In 2020, enterprises above designated size in the industry of the industrial zone have generated a gross industrial output value of 2.083 billion yuan, up by 60.6% year-on-year. This year, Dongguan has been giving priority to building seven emerging industry bases worth of one hundred billion yuan with Songshan Lake Biomedicine Industry Base being one of them.