Liangjiang's life and health industry to exceed 10b yuan

In the first 11 months of this year, the life and health industry in Liangjiang New Area registered an above-scale industrial output value of 8.99 billion yuan ($1.25 billion), up 20.2 percent year-on-year. This figure is estimated to exceed 10 billion yuan by the end of December.

The life and health industry is one of the three future pillar industries in Liangjiang's blueprint to build a modern manufacturing cluster. The new area houses 270 enterprises in the industry and is currently forming an industry cluster comprising enterprise headquarters, R&C centers, manufacturing bases, and services platforms.

Coupled with leading players, such as Sinopharm and Porton Advanced, that have settled in Liangjiang, prominent universities including China Pharmaceutical University and Tianjin Medical University have also established research arms in the region.

In July, the EVAHEART medical industrial park broke ground in Liangjiang. It will serve as China's first tech industrial park that focuses on heart failure treatment. The industrial park will center on diagnosis, early prevention, surgery assistance, remote monitoring, ventricular assist, and critical condition treatment. It will also engage in the R&D and manufacturing of medical devices, as well as provide whole-process solutions to medical institutes and critically ill patients.

Rendering of the EVAHEART medical industrial park. [Photo provided to english.liangjiang.gov.cn]

EVAHEART, the sole artificial heart device approved for long-term treatment in China, was launched by Liangjiang-based Li-long Technology in 2014. In 17 EVAHEART clinical trials, the survival rate reached 100 percent a year after surgery, and 94.1 percent in two years.

Three life and health industry clusters are forming in the new area, including medical instruments, biological products, and chemicals. The new area is also cultivating three emerging sectors: new Chinese medicine, new services, and new healthcare. It plans to continue promoting the integral development of medical science, pharmaceuticals, instruments, and treatment.

To date, the new area has created its first life and health fund totaling 500 million yuan. With this fund and other such industrial funds, the new area plans to support industry growth.