2025 is the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan and a key year for planning high-quality development during the 15th Five-Year Plan period.

Focusing on the goals of high-level scientific and technological self-reliance and the construction of an international science and technology innovation center, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission has thoroughly implemented the work arrangements of the Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government on optimizing the business environment, continuously strengthened policy supply, guided the gathering of innovative elements, enhanced innovation source capabilities, and continuously optimized the full-chain innovation service system, providing a fair, equitable, inclusive and innovative environment for all types of innovation entities, building a full life cycle cultivation system for the growth of science and technology enterprises, and creating a good business environment.

Strong support: Continue to strengthen top-level design and consolidate the full-chain policy supply system

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As the leading department of Shanghai's biomedicine industry, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission will work with relevant departments to strengthen leading innovation reforms, increase policy supply to support high-quality development of the industry, focus on bottlenecks in industry development, deepen the coordinated reform and coordination of medical care, medical insurance, and pharmaceuticals, and build a policy guarantee system to support scientific and technological innovation and high-end industry leadership.

In terms of biomedical technological innovation and industrial development, a number of policies have been formulated to consolidate the full-chain policy supply system around the needs of innovative drug and medical device research and development, industrialization and commercialization. The General Office of the Shanghai Municipal Government issued the "Several Opinions of the General Office of the Shanghai Municipal People's Government on Supporting the Innovation and Development of the Full Chain of the Biomedical Industry", "Shanghai Action Plan to Enhance the International Competitiveness of Biomedical Enterprises (2024-2027)", "Shanghai Work Plan for the Development of Medical Artificial Intelligence (2025-2027)", "Shanghai Action Plan for Promoting Innovation and Development of Pension Science and Technology (2024-2027)" and other policies. In combination with their own functions, the relevant departments at the municipal level in Shanghai have formulated and issued a series of policies on clinical trials, inheritance of traditional Chinese medicine, medical cohorts, review and approval, ethical review, foreign investment research and development, equity investment, science and technology finance, customs clearance convenience, environmental impact assessment and pollution discharge, and actively created a good innovation ecological environment for the biomedical industry.

Industrial vitality continues to burst forth. In 2024, the output value of Shanghai's biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry will be 201.167 billion yuan, an increase of 15.192 billion yuan from 2023, a comparable growth of 3.3%; therapeutic biological products, medical imaging equipment and other advantageous fields have grown well. Xiaofang Pharmaceutical and Yinosi, two biopharmaceutical companies, were listed on the main board and the Science and Technology Innovation Board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange respectively. Innovative products continue to make efforts. In 2024, the city will have 7 domestically produced Class 1 innovative drugs on the market (second in the country, accounting for 17.5% of the country), 3 imported Class 1 innovative drugs; 15 domestically produced Class 3 innovative medical devices will be listed (first in the country, accounting for 32.6% of the country), and 17 imported Class 3 innovative medical devices will be imported, and the innovative achievements will exceed the same period last year. International development capabilities continue to improve. There are 15 projects with overseas licensing transactions exceeding US$500 million, with a transaction volume of US$19.833 billion, a year-on-year increase of 30.52%, ranking first in the country.

Strong driving force: Continue to enhance the source function of scientific and technological innovation and strengthen the support of science and technology finance

Shanghai, "Big Zero Bay" science and technology innovation source functional area logo and related supporting facilities. Visual China Photo

Shanghai has researched and issued "Several Policy Measures on Accelerating the Construction of the "Big Zero Bay" Science and Technology Innovation Source Functional Zone", which forms specific policy measures around five aspects: "strengthening sources, promoting transformation, increasing momentum, gathering factors, and creating an atmosphere", focusing on increasing investment in basic research and supporting the transfer and transformation of scientific and technological achievements.

Minhang District signed a new round of comprehensive cooperation framework agreements with six universities including Shanghai Jiao Tong University and East China Normal University, introducing a number of basic scientific and technological innovation platforms such as the National Key Laboratory of RNA Function and Application of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; "Big Zero Bay" one-kilometer incubator of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, "Big Zero Bay" achievement transformation base and other "one-stop" incubation platforms have been built one after another.

As the core area of Shanghai's scientific and technological innovation source function, Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Zone has continuously improved its scientific and technological innovation source capacity. It has gathered more than 300 high-level R&D entities and has the world's largest, most comprehensive and most powerful cluster of photon science facilities.

In addition, the concentration of high-quality enterprises in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Zone continues to increase. It has brought together a number of leading companies such as Pinduoduo, Bilibili, and Ctrip. By the end of 2023, there will be 73 companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in Zhangjiang Hi-tech Zone, accounting for about 82% of the city and 13% of the country; 435 domestic and overseas listed companies, with an average of one listed company per square kilometer; and 113 potential "unicorn" companies, accounting for more than 85% of the city.

Strengthen the strong support of science and technology finance. Actively guide Shanghai Pudong Development Bank and other institutions to support corporate innovation, and provide credit loans of 4.098 billion yuan to 204 small giant enterprises; Shanghai actively cultivates long-term capital and patient capital, plays the guiding role of government investment, promotes the establishment and operation of a future industry fund with a total scale of 10 billion yuan, and accelerates the virtuous cycle of "technology-industry-finance". Continue to deepen the risk-sharing model of "government + bank + insurance". By the end of 2024, risk-sharing credit products such as "Science and Technology Innovation Support Loan" and "Science and Technology Performance Loan" have cumulatively granted credit to 7,122 enterprises with a credit amount of 28.21 billion yuan. Deeply implement the "Pujiang Light" action, with a total of 93 companies listed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board, with a total market value of more than 1.6 trillion yuan, maintaining the first place in the country.

Shanghai focuses on the field of modern industrial system, supports science and technology service industry enterprises to carry out major project investment, implement the research and development of key technologies, methods, devices and equipment, and carry out digital and intelligent technology upgrades and equipment updates.

In 2024, a total of 16 major investment projects in the science and technology service industry will be supported, attracting corporate investment of more than 330 million yuan; adopting methods such as "no application required, enjoy benefits upon reaching standards", the city-level financial incentive measures for science and technology service industry enterprises that have upgraded to meet standards for the first time in 2024 will be accelerated, benefiting 127 companies.

From January to November 2024, there were 2,465 enterprises above the designated size in Shanghai's science and technology service industry, with a revenue of 540.959 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%. The year-on-year growth rate has been rising for three consecutive years (4.2% in 2022 and 8.6% in 2023), significantly higher than the national average during the same period (5.9%).

In 2025, Shanghai will further optimize the technology finance support system. Give full play to the early investment incubation function of the Future Industry Fund, select and establish high-quality sub-funds, and explore, verify, incubate, and invest in disruptive innovation projects at home and abroad. Strengthen credit support for technology-based enterprises, make good use of the special fund policy for financing guarantees for technology-based enterprises, and promote the implementation of the 5 billion yuan "Technology Innovation Special Guarantee Plan" of the Municipal Finance Bureau. Optimize the "Technology Innovation Support Loan" product plan and encourage banks to use talent, R&D intensity, and results transformation capabilities as loan thresholds for early, small, and hard technology-based small and micro enterprises.

Strong efficiency: multiple measures to promote the incubation and transformation of scientific and technological achievements

On July 4, 2024, the 2024 World Artificial Intelligence Conference and High-Level Meeting on Global Governance of Artificial Intelligence opened at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, with 25 humanoid robots unveiled. Visual China Photo

Shanghai deepens the reform of the property rights system of scientific and technological achievements, leveraging "big benefits" with "small incisions". Implement the "Shanghai Science and Technology Achievement Transformation and Innovation Reform Pilot Implementation Plan", promote the reform measures of "granting ownership + transfer + agreement" full ownership empowerment, compliance entrepreneurship, etc., and promote pilot units to establish supporting system guidelines such as separate management of scientific and technological achievements and due diligence exemption. The reform pilot stage in 2024 has achieved remarkable results. 39 universities, research institutes and medical and health institutions have empowered 185 achievements, including 82 full ownership empowerments, with a transformation amount of 1.09 billion yuan, and promoted 149 companies where scientific researchers started their own businesses or rectified compliance, absorbing 6.8 billion yuan in investment and financing.

In terms of transformation of scientific and technological achievements, a number of representative transformation cases have emerged in Shanghai. In 2024, the "7-azaindole compounds and their preparation methods and applications" jointly developed by the research teams of Fudan University and East China Normal University were exclusively licensed to a pharmaceutical company for US$98.25 million. The amount of scientific and technological achievements transformed by East China Normal University through three methods of licensing, transfer, and investment increased from 7.08 million yuan in 2023 to 476 million yuan in 2024; after the empowerment document of Shanghai University of Technology came out, the first fully empowered achievement "Humanoid Robot Project" completed 100 million yuan of financing in just two months; Ruijin Hospital generated two 100 million yuan transformation contracts: a 270 million yuan transformation agreement was reached with Shanghai Pharmaceuticals Ruier on the "Hemophilia Gene Therapy" technical solution, and a 100 million yuan "Coagulation Drug" patent package transformation cooperation was reached with Shanghai Laishi Blood Products Company; Renji Hospital issued the "Implementation Rules for the Single List Management of Job-related Scientific and Technological Achievements", and the approval efficiency was more than doubled.

Focusing on the modern industrial system and focusing on cutting-edge tracks and future industries such as gene therapy, intelligent sensing, large models, and humanoid robots, Shanghai has launched the construction of a number of high-quality incubators.

Strengthen the "industry-university-research" cooperation with enterprises as the core, give full play to the role of enterprises as "question setters", "examiners" and "answerers", accelerate the construction of an open industrial innovation ecosystem with enterprises as the core, and support leading enterprises such as COMAC, CCB Financial, and Fuhong Hanlin to take the lead in establishing innovation alliances; focus on cultivating a group of industrial chain ecosystem-leading enterprises with strong originality, and support large enterprises to build open innovation platforms.

In 2025, the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission will continue to promote the construction of a technology transfer system with high standards. It will promote the market-oriented allocation of technological factors, support the Shanghai Technology Exchange in building a national intellectual property and scientific and technological achievements property rights trading center, explore facilitation measures such as cross-border technology trade, build an international technology transfer cooperation network, regularly carry out cross-border promotion and implementation services for scientific and technological achievements, and promote global information exchange and transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements.

Improve the mechanism to support the development of innovative drugs, give better play to the clinical benefits of innovative drugs, enhance people's well-being, rely on the comprehensive reform advantages of Pudong New Area, strive for the support of relevant national departments, and take the lead in carrying out the reform of the admission and use of innovative drugs. Adhere to the basic principles of people first, innovation first, trial first, and controllable risks, focus on the key links such as admission, use, pricing, payment, review and approval of innovative drugs, strengthen the coordination of "three medical services", take the lead and take the lead, actively "test the system, measure the pressure, and explore new paths" for the country, accelerate the construction of a biopharmaceutical industry innovation highland with global influence, and cultivate and develop new quality productivity.