At present, in the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone, along Huaxi Road and Zhuanxing Road, on an open land, construction machinery vehicles are busy and busy. Here, the global pharmaceutical giant Modena has entered the pile foundation construction phase of its first pharmaceutical plant in China, the "Meier Na China R&D and Production Headquarters" project.
Covering an area of 270 acres and with a total investment of 3.6 billion yuan, this is currently the largest benchmark foreign investment project in the biopharmaceutical field in China. Industry insiders refer to Modena as "Tesla of the biopharmaceutical industry", believing that its iterative and upgrading effect on China's biopharmaceutical industry will be no less than Tesla's boosting effect on China's new energy vehicle industry.
What is even more noteworthy is that from July 5th when the US company Modena signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and the Minhang District Government in Shanghai, to October 8th when the land was delisted and a land transfer contract was signed. From the strategic signing to the commencement of land acquisition, it only took more than three months, once again refreshing the speed of key project landing in Shanghai, even taking more than one month less than Tesla. How was this achieved?
Key 4 days
Minhang has been monitoring the Modena project in the United States for three years.
On April 1st of this year, Stefan Bansell, CEO of Modena Group, and his delegation made their first visit to Shanghai, launching a four-day investment inspection activity. Prior to this, they had not even confirmed whether to invest in Shanghai. These 4 days have become crucial.
"On the afternoon of April 2nd, when we accompanied Mr. Bensell to the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone and stood on the rooftop of an 8-story factory building, overlooking the sunny land, I saw his eyes brighten. At that time, I felt 'there was a play'."
A staff member of the Minhang District Investment Promotion Center told reporters that in those days, they compared and sorted out nearly 10 plots of land, and each point would be inspected multiple times in advance to achieve the best possible details, We didn't go to the plot to see the land, but instead stood on a tall building to overlook it, which was also carefully designed by us. On site, the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone also specially drew an English version of the map, marking the foreign and listed enterprises around the plot, including subway stations, bus stops, etc.
Bansell told everyone through his advisor that this area deeply attracted him. It is not only close to the city center, but also very orderly in all directions. Next to it is Modena's upstream raw material enterprise - Zhaowei Technology, where he plans to build Modena's world's largest factory. It is understood that originally, Modner planned to acquire about 100 acres of research and development production land, but after seeing these 270 acres of land, they decided to take them all.
The origin of this land also fully proves the importance of "advanced planning". In recent years, Xinzhuang Industrial Zone has laid out the biopharmaceutical industry chain across the front lines, and carried out sorting and mapping for inefficient industrial land, clarifying the distribution and list of potential land parcels for quality and efficiency improvement. This 270 acres of land was originally used as surplus land by a company. The industrial zone has previously conducted multiple rounds of negotiations with the owner to explore innovative operational paths for the division and recovery of surplus land. After being spotted by Modner at first glance, the process of collecting and storing land parcels accelerated. Advance planning and revitalization of surplus industrial land provides space for carrying major projects like Modena.
So, these four crucial days are not just about time, but also due to being prepared in advance. In March of this year, even before the visit of Bansell and his delegation to Shanghai, Minhang established a "special team" working mechanism around the Modena project, with the district party secretary and district chief serving as the dual team leaders, and the deputy district chief in charge as the first deputy team leader. All relevant departments and parks are members of the special team, including a comprehensive coordination group, a policy research group, and a service guarantee group. After the establishment of the work team, specialized implementation plans were developed through multiple special studies, and issues related to the negative list, product access approval, planning and environmental protection of the Modena project were sorted out. The problem solving path was clarified, laying a solid foundation for Modena's investment decision-making and subsequent implementation promotion.
On April 3rd, when Bansell and his delegation visited the Minhang Museum for inspection, the "Mawangdui Cultural Relics Exhibition" was being held there. The investment personnel quickly became "exhibition guides", giving full English explanations of the entire route and each exhibit, making the guests marvel at Chinese culture. When Mr. Bensell learned that the girl born in 1995 was not a professional lecturer, he was surprised and said, "Wow, it's unbelievable!"
These details not only showcase the image of Shanghai and Minhang, but also highlight the professional team's project service capabilities, leaving a deep impression on the project team and further boosting the confidence and determination of the project to land in Minhang.
Continuously challenging work limits
On October 8th, the project completed land delisting. On this day, as one of the two staff members responsible for sending and receiving emails from the Modena side in the work team, Wu Weijie, a "post-95s" young man from the Investment Promotion Department of Xinzhuang Industrial Zone, was finally able to go on vacation.
Since July, he has been closely following this project and constantly postponing his vacation. Due to the time difference, he often needs to send and receive American emails at night and strives to reply within 2 hours. Within two months, through email correspondence, the work team responded and answered 45 US requirements, and completed closed-loop processing within 30 minutes at the fastest.
Time is snatched out in this way. It is reported that at that time, Modena had not yet established a dedicated liaison team in China, while the general manager, consultant, legal affairs, general agent, and environmental impact assessment company of the Shanghai company were all relatively independent and flattened. From the user's perspective, the Xinzhuang Industrial Zone implemented a joint operation with the project party, clarifying that "one professional should coordinate all demands", accept them all at once, and efficiently circulate them. At the same time, in response to Modena's demands, Xinzhuang Industrial Zone has established a working mechanism of "instant docking, 2-hour response, and 4-hour implementation"; In order to reduce the impact of time difference, staff are on duty 24 hours a day, fully ensuring landing speed.
The land has been successfully delisted, and Xiaowu can now take a vacation. The team of Minhang Planning and Capital Bureau is still fighting hard, working overtime until late at night. On this day, there were various twists and turns. In order to sign the land contract and upload the "land planning permit" within 24 hours, they implemented "zero time difference office". Finally, after repeated communication and confirmation with the US side, the agency successfully obtained authorization and stamped it before 12 o'clock.
The project also established a mechanism for soliciting proposals through "coaching+pre review+approval". Before the formal approval of the project proposal, the special team convened two joint pre evaluation meetings with 14 government agencies in advance. At the first preliminary review meeting, each department informed each other of the design criteria and negative list, clarifying what cannot be done, so that the project design team can avoid detours and achieve success as much as possible in one go; One week later, it was the second pre review meeting, and each department conducted a pre review of the forming plan before submission, pointing out the areas that needed to be modified, refined, and supplemented... After the two pre reviews, the project plan was uploaded to the system, and within 3 working days, all departments received responses. In this way, it only took 3 weeks from proposal solicitation to approval completion, providing strong support for shortening the overall implementation time of the project.
Reverse scheduling is also one of the distinctive practices of the project. Every Saturday, the leaders of Minhang District organize a special class meeting. According to the inverted time nodes, each member unit reports on the latest progress of the week, whether the tasks have been completed according to the nodes, and the special class coordinates and solves specific problems encountered.
This is the first time Modena has built a factory in China, which has created the "Tesla" speed in the biopharmaceutical industry. It is also inseparable from the linkage between urban areas and various departments taking a step forward. Among them, municipal departments such as the Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology and the Municipal Drug Administration, as well as Minhang District, have accompanied enterprises to visit units such as the National Medical Products Administration, the National Health Commission, and the National Center for Disease Control and Prevention in Beijing multiple times, and have simultaneously promoted counseling and pre approval processes to ensure seamless connection between various approval processes and help enterprises accelerate relevant approval processes. Especially in terms of registration and name verification for Modena, under the guidance and care of the Municipal Market Management Bureau, we have won the support of the Registration Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation.
From a company to an industry
The production and research and development project of Modena landing in Minhang will cover the entire chain from drug substances to drug and personalized new antigen production, thereby driving the improvement of the overall mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) industry chain in China, promoting the development of upstream and downstream industries, and bringing its globalization experience to China, promoting the internationalization of standards in China's biopharmaceutical field.
In Minhang's view, the landing of Modena is not only a successful introduction of a major project, but also an introduction of the ecosystem of the biopharmaceutical industry. In recent years, Minhang District has become an important growth pole in the development map of Shanghai's leading biopharmaceutical industry through the "3+X" biopharmaceutical overall layout. As of July this year, there are over 600 biopharmaceutical enterprises in Minhang District, including 4 listed companies and 186 high-tech enterprises. The industrial revenue scale exceeds 50 billion yuan, and the concentration of high-quality enterprises in the genetic field is leading domestically.
How to undertake the radiation drive of the Modena project well? Minhang District is actively creating a high-quality growth ecosystem in industrial cultivation, striving to provide effective support in spatial planning, industrial policies, talent research, and market access.
For example, in terms of spatial planning, Minhang District combines the industrial planning of the entire district's biopharmaceutical subdivision field and proposes to focus on the Modena project, layout upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain nearby, and build a leading nucleic acid industry brand. The Xinzhuang Industrial Zone has also reserved space for future development. In addition to reserving about 150 acres of research and development land, it will also collect and store about 700 acres of inefficient land, and revitalize approximately 200000 square meters of industrial factories and buildings. The park will prioritize the allocation of land resources around the Modena project site to high-quality upstream and downstream enterprises, promoting the clustering of chain enterprises.
In terms of industrial policies, Minhang is planning to develop corresponding innovation incentive policies for Taiwan, and gradually exploring and refining relevant policy guidance to provide clearer policy basis and direction guidance for the development of the mRNA industry chain in Minhang.
In terms of research talents, Minhang will increase the introduction of high-end biopharmaceutical talents, including mRNA, and strengthen research cooperation with relevant research institutions. In combination with the implementation and production of the project, the district will strengthen horizontal cooperation with relevant institutions such as universities, hospitals, animal research institutes, and the New Hongqiao International Medical Center in the region, better empower the development of the mRNA industry chain, and promote deep integration of industry, academia, and research.
The reporter learned that since the beginning of this year, Minhang District has conducted in-depth research on the upstream and downstream of the biopharmaceutical industry chain, sorting out a total of 99 upstream and downstream enterprises in the three major sectors of mRNA templates, raw materials, and preparations. Except for 7 enterprises that have already landed in Minhang, other enterprises have been classified according to registered capital, financing situation, establishment time, etc., and visits have been carried out.
The Xinzhuang Industrial Zone, led by leading enterprises, is actively implementing talent guarantee housing, building innovation and entrepreneurship industry university research platforms, introducing vertical incubator resources, and encouraging large enterprises to open and share laboratories in order to attract and cultivate more innovative biopharmaceutical enterprises in the future. In the future, a biopharmaceutical industry alliance will be established to form a common and inclusive industrial development ecology.
The leaders of Minhang District stated that as one of the three global mRNA giants, Modena has transformed from a research-oriented company promoting messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) projects to an enterprise with a diversified clinical combination of vaccines and therapeutic drugs. In 2023, it ranked 18th among global pharmaceutical companies. The landing of Modena in Minhang not only conforms to the overall strategic deployment of the country, but also injects new strength into the development and growth of Minhang's biopharmaceutical industry cluster, as well as the consolidation of Shanghai's biopharmaceutical industry chain.