NANJING, Sept. 8 (Xinhua) -- A new life sciences park opened Saturday in eastern China's Wuxi City, as the local government seeks to attract global firms to nurture a healthcare ecosystem to benefit domestic and overseas patients.
The Wuxi International Life Science Innovation Campus, located in the city's national-level High-tech District, will bring together local and international companies, government departments, medical and academic institutions and offer companies with shared resources, including laboratories, equipment and services.
It will also facilitate collaboration with the global R&D network of biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca, a founding partner, to accelerate innovation, supporting the end-to-end development and commercialization of healthcare solutions in China.
Ten global healthcare innovation companies including Japan's Omron Healthcare, Russia's Semantic Hub and the United Kingdom's ClearSky became the first batch of ecosystem members to settle in the park, covering drugs, equipment, diagnostics and digital technologies. It is expected that more than 50 startups will operate in the park in the next three years.
"We hope that the new park can pool global wisdom of the healthcare ecosystem, sharing resources and fruits to benefit everyone," said Zhu Xiaohong, deputy director of the administration committee for Wuxi High-Tech District.
China's healthcare sector poses huge growth potential due to the rising and diversifying demands for medical products and services, according to Leon Wang, executive vice president, international and China president with AstraZeneca.
The opening of the new life sciences park came after the Cambridge-headquartered company set up its China Commercial Innovation Centre, also in Wuxi, which seeks to develop new ways of working with China's healthcare system.
The country released the "Healthy China 2030" blueprint in 2016, which covered areas including public health services, environment management, the medical industry, food and drug safety.
A new guideline was issued in July to implement the initiative, with a focus on disease prevention and health promotion, including 15 special campaigns to "intervene in health influencing factors, protect full-life-cycle health and prevent and control major diseases."
