In a short sentence, the weight is very heavy. From "0" to "1", it is not only the innovation of business model, but also the innovation of overlapping superior resources among enterprises to enhance the overall competitiveness. It also shows that the integration of the Yangtze River Delta is a major project worthy of in-depth exploration in the fields of regional cooperation and industrial empowerment.
Founded in 20 12, based on its unique immune tolerance barrier breakthrough technology (IMTB), Maibos has established a 12 product line focusing on tumor immunotherapy, orthopedics and nephropathy, which has continuously won the high attention of peers and investors in the industry for many years. With clear project planning, long-term development strategy and strong competitiveness in this field, the company has grown from two people in the initial team to more than 300 people in eight years, and completed three rounds of financing, amounting to 237 million US dollars. After the merger, the enterprise will have the ability to integrate the whole process of research, development, supervision and production.
In this year's Jinji Lake Partner Program, Mai Bo Si, as one of the high-quality enterprises in the biomedical field in the park, was included in the first batch of enterprises, and Dr. Qian Xueming also actively participated in the empowerment training-leadership training planned by Jinji Lake Partner Program. For enterprises, the implementation of the new development concept depends not only on innovation, but also on the docking and cooperation of resources from all parties. Jinjihu Partner Program hopes to help partner enterprises extend their new development tentacles, promote personalized docking and cooperation, and accelerate the creation of park enterprises with world influence and world-class business environment through this platform.
Dr Qian Xueming, once the chief scientist of Amgen, a global biotechnology giant, has a humble and open heart. He believes that a biomedical enterprise with long-term operation ability should have an excellent team in addition to establishing a technical platform. On the other hand, cutting-edge talents are like investors when recruiting talents. They put the most glorious years of their lives into the enterprise, which inevitably requires more than "banknotes" and "options". This requires enterprises and business leaders to have the characteristics of attracting talents. For example, whether the project is valuable, whether the enterprise is resilient, and whether the boss is professional, inclusive and leading.
Dr Qian Xueming compared his experience in the first two years after returning to China to a "migrant worker", and he was anxious about the progress of the project beyond his control. However, he always believes that maintaining the academic insight and quick response ability of cutting-edge technology is the key to maintaining the "moat" of enterprises.
In the next interview, you will see Dr. Qian Xueming who has lived in the United States for 20 years, deconstructing the development trend of biomedical industry and sharing his entrepreneurial experience.
Interviewee: Dr. Qian Xueming, CEO of Mai Bo, a national expert on major talent introduction project, and a student who participated in the excellent leadership training and empowerment program of the College.
Interview/Writing: Xu
The experience of standing on the shoulders of a giant
Q 1
The biomedical industry in the United States started earlier. As the former chief scientist of the industry leader, what changes did you see in the whole industry at that time?
Qian Xueming: I returned to China in the late 1990s at 20 10. In the past 20 years, I have seen interesting changes in this industry in the United States.
The first is from the research and development of small molecular oral drugs to the start of biomedicine. Small molecule drugs are often used to suppress some superfluous things, and what they do is "subtraction". Early biomedicine did "addition" and studied protein, such as EPO.
Before the human genome was completely cracked, some companies felt that the "added" drug targets were infinite. Until the end of 1990s, scientists devoted themselves to the human genome project. After the completion of gene sequencing, new targets appeared. But we haven't found many targets that can be directly used to develop drugs in protein. Thus, in the late 1990s, Amgen began to transform into subtraction. At that time, Genentech, which focused on the field of cancer, was at the forefront of subtraction, and classic drugs such as Herceptin and Rituximab appeared.
After 20 10, great changes have taken place in the biomedical industry in the United States, and there are fewer and fewer new targets that can be "subtracted", so the whole industry began to pursue follow-up drugs. Later, Merck and Squibb in the United States developed PD- 1 inhibitors, and the pattern of tumor treatment suddenly changed. Since then, the industry has begun to pay attention to the drug targets that a small number of patients can respond well, such as FGFR, ADC and other areas that are gradually refined and diversified.
In the process of industry reform, we found that if we only focus on the research and development of small molecular drugs, the sales of enterprises will decline precipitously after the patent period of drugs. In order to balance this, many traditional pharmaceutical companies began to invest in antibody drugs on a large scale. In order to expand more development space, Amgen, which focuses on biopharmaceuticals, does the opposite and cuts into the field of small molecular drugs. This timely arrangement established Amgen's leading position in KRAS drug tracking.
We can see the diversified layout of the giants in the industry and constantly explore new tracks, such as cell therapy and gene therapy.
Q2
What did Amgen's job bring you?
Qian Xueming: On September 22nd, 1997, I joined Amgen. At that time, Amgen began to look for and verify the goal of subtraction, and developed the company's first antibody-based drug Prolia (Disuzumab). Prolia 2065 438+00 was approved for listing, and I just left Amgen that year.
Judging from the process of pharmaceutical industry, biopharmaceuticals in the United States started early, and Amgen is the leader in the industry, and my accumulated experience and ideas in biopharmaceuticals are all learned from its shoulders-I have worked for more than ten years and watched the whole process of drugs from project establishment to listing.
There are many considerations in developing antibody drugs, and it is crucial to establish a technical platform, and the technology needed in each link should be clear. For Anjin, it can make a rapid change on the basis of the past "addition" drug research and development technology. Relying on the past research and development experience of EPO, Amgen established CHO engineering cell line by similar methods, and at the same time, it should ensure the safety of raw materials in every link of amplification, production, purification, preparation and canning, and reasonably price drugs.
Q3
How to divide the track?
Qian Xueming: This is very important. Goals can play an important role in diseases. The choice of the target has become the differentiated feature of each company, and the so-called "each occupies several hills". For example, Genentech focuses on the field of cancer, and its achievements include Avastin and atilizumab. Amgen focuses on orthopedics and metabolic diseases, and its achievements include desuzumab and lomozoizumab.
classroom discussion
Wasteland and opportunity
Q4
After returning to China, what kind of opportunities made you think of starting a business?
Qian Xueming: 20 10 After my family and I returned to China, domestic biomedicine was still a "wasteland". But on the other hand, there are opportunities everywhere.
When I first returned to China, no one was found to develop new antibody drugs. In order to support my family, two years ago, I came to Beijing Shengnuo Gene to "work" to help establish a research and development team. When the company's project reached the second clinical stage, I decided to leave because I wanted to do my own major-first-class antibody drug research and development. So I came back to Suzhou from Beijing, thinking about building a "small workshop" anyway, and Mai Bo thought was born.
Thank you very much for Suzhou Industrial Park. The park has a great talent policy, which allows me to get start-up funds and housing subsidies, which is of great help to entrepreneurs who just started. Based on this help, I told a few friends that I got the first angel investment, 3 million, started to build my own laboratory and got the environmental protection qualification certificate. At that time, Maibos's office was only 350 square meters, and "every brick" had to be designed by himself. I remember the decoration cost is very clear, 274 thousand yuan.
Q5
How did the entrepreneurial team start?
Qian Xueming: At first, my team consisted of only two people, including 1 technician and 1 administrative assistant. Finance is outsourced.
After the company was established for half a year, my team began to take projects with their own technology. Because the technology needs to be verified by the project, after the verification reaches a certain stage, we can publicize the technology and tell everyone that the target of our research has made so many interesting antibodies. Later, some companies asked us if we could provide CRO services, so that we could support ourselves by providing services and subsidies provided by the government.
In 20 15, my team was lucky enough to get the support of Lilly Asia Fund and started to cooperate with Hengrui Pharma. In that year, the net profit exceeded 6,543,800 yuan, and my team "lived".
Q6
What are the chances of Maibos switching to biopharmaceuticals instead of becoming a CRO institution?
Qian Xueming: At that time, Wuxi PharmaTech had developed very well. In fact, instead of doing finance, I can transfer several ongoing projects and realize tens of millions. But I think maybe CRO is not what I am good at-I have to train many employees and try to establish contact with my partners. On the other hand, at that time, the PD- 1 track was very popular at home and abroad, and just making CRO seemed to be a "small fight".
I'm not a stickler for convention. I think I have the spirit of exploration, strong curiosity and like to follow the forefront of my field, so I can seize the opportunity. Moreover, human beings have 20,000-30,000 genomes. At present, we use at most1000-2,000 genomes, accounting for less than 10% of the total, which means that 90% of the "gold mines" have not been mined, and antibody drugs are still promising.
And my goal is to establish a technical platform to develop antibody drugs with patent protection and high quality. In other words, as long as a gene is found to play an important role in a certain disease, this platform has the ability to develop antibody drugs for this target immediately.
At that time, one project was first-class, and the other two were quickly followed up. However, the subsequent innovation focuses on the project speed, and outsourcing to other CRO teams can't control the speed, and the profit may be greatly reduced after listing. So I docked with Yi Anji, who was good at technology and production. Therefore, R&D, technology, clinic and production have become an integrated platform.
Q7
As far as the goals you set are concerned, what qualities do you need to build such a technology platform?
Qian Xueming: Being very sensitive to cutting-edge technologies and diseases, paying attention to the academic trends in the field of biology and finding the right goals are actually very important in our pharmaceutical industry.
If the correct target cannot be found, there is an 80% chance of failure, and even if the final drug is the best, the highest quality and the fastest clinical speed, it will become useless. Of course, with the correct goal, the market share of finished drugs is another issue that needs to be discussed.
How to build a team of 300 people
Q8
It is very important to recruit cutting-edge talents for drug research and development. How did Mai Bo attract talents from a team of two people to a team of more than 300 people?
Qian Xueming: First of all, can you match the salary and reward for talents? Secondly, enterprises need to have resilience and adaptability, and cannot "retreat" casually; Third, talents not only value salary returns, but also need platforms and projects to realize their values and ideals.
Lilly Asia Foundation has also brought us human resources, such as our chief medical officer Dr. Xu Li and consultant Dr. Su Ling. And an excellent main team will further attract more talents in process production and clinical fields.
For the helmsman of an enterprise, it is also necessary to have the core characteristics of attracting talents in order to form an excellent team. The first trait is honesty. You should not only know your own strengths, but also realize your own shortcomings, so that you can know what kind of people can help you. The second feature is professionalism. You must have a very professional knowledge reserve in your own field. The third feature is open-mindedness. The helmsman should be able to listen to the opinions of professionals and not take his own interests too seriously. The invited talents are willing to contribute the most brilliant years of their lives in the enterprise. The fourth trait is leadership, including courage, the ability to build drug pipelines, organizational skills and the ability to build enterprise infrastructure.
Only excellent teams can promote the development of enterprises to become long-term and dynamic.
Q9
What is the most difficult thing you have encountered in the process of starting a business?
Qian Xueming: The hardest time is 20 17. On an important project, I spent money to hire an outsourcing team, but the other party didn't give me the due progress on time, and what my team needed to complete has been completed. I feel very painful, because this matter is beyond my control, and in the middle of the project, it will be boring to replace or not to replace such CRO, because the delay will directly affect the speed and final value of drug research and development, and even affect the next round of financing, falling behind others on the biomedical track.
This incident also prompted me to merge with Yi Anji. R&D and technology are like our two legs. One leg is kidnapped, even if the other leg wants to run fast, it is impossible.