Luye Life Sciences Group, a leading Singapore-based international pharmaceutical company announced on Sept 28 to cooperate with Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) to build a regenerative medicine center in Guangzhou.

The South China Luye Regenerative Medicine Center project will be built at Guangzhou International Bio Island in Guangzhou Development District (GDD) and marks another first-class biological medicine project introduced in Guangzhou after the GE bio-campus project, BeiGene project and the Cold Spring Harbor (Guangzhou) Research Institution project.

The key research areas of the regenerative medicine center will include skin regeneration and regenerative cartilage products.

The new technologies are revolutionizing regenerative treatments, especially in skin care. Previously, when patients suffered from skin damage, doctors would always carry out skin grafts using skin from elsewhere on the patient's body. However, the new technology enables doctors to use only a small amount of the patient's skin and culture it outside the body before using it for a skin graft. The technology is high efficiency and can be used at low cost.

GDD is already home to a range of such high-tech companies and institutions including South China Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine Research Center and Guangzhou Institutes of Biomedicine and Health, Chinese Academy of Sciences. The introduction of South China Luye Regenerative Medicine Center will further help GDD to become a top location for regenerative medicine.

GDD is home to more than 1,000 companies in the areas of biological medicine and health care and the total value of its industries stood at 52.3 billion yuan ($7.9 billion) in 2016. With Guangzhou pressing ahead with its IAB Initiative (focusing industries of next generation of information technology, AI and biological medicine), GDD will build an industrial cluster of the biomedicine industry during China's 13th Five Year Plan (2016-20). 

An aerial photo shows Guangzhou International Bio Island in Guangzhou Development District. [Photo/gzdaily.dayoo.com]