A strategic agreement was signed between the Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning (BJHFP) and the Administrative Committee of Zhongguancun Science Park on Dec 24, during the Innovation and Cooperation Conference for Promoting Health Service Development.
Zhang Chunsheng, director-general of the National Health and Family Planning Commission (NHFPC)'s Department of Law and Legislation, Fang Laiying, director of BJHFP, Guo Hong, director of the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee, and some 200 attendees including representatives from healthcare institutions, entrepreneurs, industry leaders and investors attended the conference.
The two sides have committed to building translational medicine platforms that would initiate pilot programs on basic research, achievement transformation, profit sharing, talent training, and technology incubation. They will focus on the needs of clinicians and patients, and explore long-term mechanisms that promote innovation and transformation by integrating relevant sectors including healthcare, technology and financing. The two parties hope these efforts will lead to an output of major technology products and their translation in the healthcare industry.
Terms of the contract include building municipal translational medicine centers, establishing and implementing a host of favorable policies, carrying out clinical demonstrations of cutting-edge technologies and big data research in medicine, supporting pilot programs on innovative care delivery, accelerating the application of new technology, exploring ways of profit sharing and jointly training specialists in the area of translational medicine.
Under the agreement, the center for translational medicine, a patient-centered organization will be dedicated to the clinical application of its findings by doing fundamental research programs targeted on questions posed by clinicians. The first group of such institutions that meets government standards will be open to the public next year.
To support the development of translational medicine, BHFPC and the Zhongguancun Administrative Committee will set up a fund that could be used to cover relevant expenses including operating costs, incentive policies, clinical research and its applications. The parties will also establish a market-oriented fund for the transfer and commercialization of translational medicine to stimulate the industrialization of the research findings.