The Golden era of UK-CHINA collaborations will determine the future of medicine

Today the UK’s Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox celebrated the future of medicine through UK-China collaborations in a speech delivered to a 160 plus audience from key health, life science and tech companies across China. Sighting his experience as a former doctor, the UK government Minister talked about how a greater trade relationship between personalized medicine, artificial intelligence and the internet of things will deliver new ways to enhance patient journeys.

Speaking at the event the Secretary of State said:  “Advances in medicine and technology are opening up new opportunities to manage and cure disease. Today accelerated access programs bring novel therapies to patients faster than ever before.  "New technologies and advancements cannot be developed in isolation though. To successfully help a population they need to be integrated into the infrastructure of a country’s healthcare system. This is an exciting challenge facing both the UK and China, tackled through greater collaboration during this golden era.”  Yesterday the UK Prime Minister Theresa May along with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang witnessed an agreement between China’s Food and Drug Administration to collaborate with the UK Medicine and Health Products Regulatory Authority. And today the international trade sec witnessed nine deals that will also bring closer working between the UK and China to develop faster, safer and more effective diagnostics, therapeutics and healthcare services.  Sharing the stage with the President of China Health Information and Big data Association, former NHFPC Vice Minister Jin Xiaotao, Dr Fox said:  “The UK has a population of approximately 65 million, the size of one Chinese province. With a population of 1.4 billion the data that can be generated through health care collaborations in China has a huge global worth.”  Over £500 million of life science and healthcare deals will be signed during the three days of the Prime Minister’s visit to China. 

The nine signings witnessed at the event were

1. Trinity College Cambridge and Tus-Holdings:

Tus-Holdings signed an agreement to invest over 200 million into the Cambridge Science Park.

2. AstraZeneca China and Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems: AstraZeneca China and Tencent signed an agreement to work together to tackle counterfeit drugs on the e-commerce platform.

3. The University of Manchester and Peking University Health Science Center : The University of Manchester and Peking University Health Science Center signed an agreement to cooperate in the areas of Biology, Medicine and Health and to extend collaboration via the establishment of a new MAHSC-PUHSC Joint Technological Platform on Biomarker Discovery.

4. Medopad and Peking University Smart Health Lab: Medopad signed an agreement with Peking University Smart Health Lab to work together to configure new care models and patient monitoring solutions.

5. Medopad and China Resources Guokang (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd: Medopad and China Resources Guokang (Shanghai) Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd signed a contract to transform how patients with chronic and high cost diseases are cared for. The solution will be deployed in 600 hospitals over five years.

6. Congenica and Digital China Health : Digital China Health signed a MOU with Congenica on joint genomic data analytics Research and Development to implement a medical big data strategy in China.

7. Congenica and Beijing UniteGen Co. Ltd: Beijing UniteGen Co. Ltd signed an agreement to expand the existing commercial deal with Congenica by reselling its platform in China to provide genomic diagnosis solutions for Chinese rare disease patients.

8. Nine Health Global and Tsingdata D-LAB: Nine Health Global and Tsingdata D-LAB signed an agreement to collaborate in the development of bid data health analytics.

Eight Great Technologies and Leaguer International Co.: This is an agreement between Eight Great Technologies and Leaguer International Co. to create Eight Great Technologies Sino-UK Fund, a 5 billion RMB fund to invest in UK emerging technologies. Shenzhen Qian Hai Sunflower Biotech Fund and JXTR Fund have committed to invest 1 billion RMB each.