AstraZeneca China signs major deal with UK company Medcity

Test tubes are seen in front of a displayed AstraZeneca logo in this illustration taken, May 21, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]

AstraZeneca China signed a major collaboration agreement with the UK life and health sciences incubation platform MedCity on Thursday during the 2022 Beijing Intelligent Health Technology and Innovation Forum which was held online, a move to promote innovation exchange between Chinese and global healthcare industries.

Through this partnership, AstraZeneca's innovation hub iCampus will work together with MedCity and its industrial partners to strengthen interactions between local and overseas healthcare innovation ecosystems.

They aim to deepen cooperation on aspects including technology sourcing and transfer, capital financing and investment, and partnership network expansion.

AstraZeneca also entered a partnership with Israeli innovation incubator Trendlines at the forum. It will partner with Trendlines to promote the incubation of tech innovation firms and the commercialization of new technologies and therefore to fulfill the huge demand in the Chinese and global healthcare markets, leveraging on Trendlines' innovation strengths, research and development experience in the medical device industry and Israel's unique industrial incubation model and innovation capabilities, the company said.

In 2021, AstraZeneca's regional headquarters in northern China were officially inaugurated in Beijing, and the Beijing International Life Science Innovation Campus (Beijing iCampus) and the Community Intelligence Healthcare Innovation Center were also established in the city.

At the Forum, Beijing iCampus also welcomed a new round of five high-tech startups to its facilities. They will work together to integrate regional innovation ecosystem resources and empower the local smart healthcare industry.

Leon Wang, executive vice-president of AstraZeneca, and president of AstraZeneca China, said the company will leverage Beijing city's international industrial advantages to continue to expand its innovation ecosystem, enable the implementation of more innovative projects in the Chinese capital, and add momentum to the city's smart healthcare ecosystem.