Chengdu focuses on attracting medical talents
( chinadaily.com.cn )
Updated: 2017-06-21
For Chengdu Medical Town, the value of innovation talents is only too "evident" as is the "policy", according to Li Zhenhua, head of Wenjiang district’s science and technology bureau.
"Generally speaking, 'policy' is a weathervane for attracting talents," Li said.
Located in Chengdu's Wenjiang district, the Medical Town is an incubation base targeting the integrated development of medical science, healthcare, and medicine in southwest China's Sichuan province.
According to the talent introduction guidelines recently released by the district, about 100 million yuan ($14.66 million) will be allocated to help companies in the town attract talents.
Sichuan Kelun Pharmaceutical is one of the beneficiaries. As soon as the company launched a national key project; it received 13 million yuan in subsidies for talents, project research and development, and the construction of an R&D platform.
However, policy is not everything.
Ji Jianxin, vice president of the Association of Chengdu Talent Development Promotion said that a favorable environment for talent development is the key factor that would affect talent’s decision, rather than welfare benefits.
In that respect, innovations were made in all the links of the industrial chain to create a favorable environment at Chengdu Medical Town. The district did not only bring in talents, but also fostered talents itself.
Currently, there are six academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Engineering, as well as 23 national, provincial and municipal "1,000 Talent Plan" experts and teams, who conduct research and provide technical guidance in the district.
The Medical Town is home to leading players in the industry, such as Kelun Pharmaceutical and CapitalBio Corporation, and more than 200,000 professionals in some 20 higher education institutions and research institutes, in an area of over 2 million square meters.
Thanks to the incubation platform in the town, local innovation teams' projects have been industrialized efficiently. Deng Bingchu, an expert listed among the provincial "100 Talent Plan" launched an R&D team for new drugs after he joined Haisco Pharmaceuticals.
The team now has more than 100 members including five specialists on the list of provincial and municipal "talent plan". A number of new drugs developed by the team have been put into clinical trials.
Liu Jianyu, a "1,000 Talent Plan" expert from Sichuan province, founded an innovation-driven company specializing in small-molecule new drug research and development services last year.
The town has the possibility to surpass the world’s leading technologies in some professional categories, such as molecular diagnosis and nucleic acid diagnosis, said Li Jun, general manager of Chengdu Fengji Biotechnology Co.
Li said the introduction of high-end talents can produce immediate results, but the cultivation of local professionals is also important, adding that the local specialists are the main force for the integrated development of medical science, healthcare, and medicine.
"As a new type of innovation and entrepreneurship base, the Medical Town is speeding up the formation of a complete layout covering fundamental research, technology R&D, clinical trials, production and consumer services," Ji said.
