Life and health industry in the Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone becomes a new growth engine for the zone’s modern economy. [Photo/people.com.cn]

The life and health industry in Hefei National High-tech Industry Development Zone in East China’s Anhui province has seen strong growth momentum in recent years, and precision medicine and big data in healthcare have been at the forefront across the country.

In 2018, the zone gathered more than 200 enterprises involved in the life and health industry, with an industrial scale of over 16.7 billion yuan ($2.4 billion), and the life and health industry has grown into a new engine for the zone’s economic growth.

According to local authorities, the life and health industry in Hefei tech zone mainly focuses on chemical medicine, biological medicine, modern Chinese medicine, high-end medical equipment and precision medicine, and a whole industrial chain has taken shape in the zone covering the supply of raw materials, research and development (R&D), outsourcing services, and trade and logistics.

Relying on the zone’s diversified innovative subjects, Hefei tech zone is making great efforts to establish a supportive system to promote its innovative capability. The zone is now home to more than 50 innovative platforms for the bioengineering and pharmaceutical industries, including six national and four international platforms.

Local authorities said that the zone will spare no efforts to promote the development of precision medicine, big data for healthcare and Jianghuai Peptide Valley, aiming to make them name cards for the zone.

In the following five years, the zone will introduce major strategic projects in precision medicine, make further breakthroughs in key technologies and set up a complete innovation system for precision medicine, in order to build a world-class industrial chain for the development of precision medicine.

Supported by favorable policies released by the local government, the zone will focus on the development of advanced technologies related to big data for healthcare, and set up a big data system for joint construction and sharing, with the aim of creating a series of products and services for disease control and prevention, precision medicine, and long-distance medical consultancy.

Hefei tech zone is now a gathering place for R&D and manufacturing of peptide products, such as Anhui Anke Biotechnology Group, Hefei KS-V Biotechnology Company, and Hefei Aimer Bioscience Technology group. The zone will give priority to developing peptide biology, aiming to make it an industry cluster for peptide enterprises with national influence.