AI and biomedicine are seen as the "twin core engines" of the future global economy.
A 30-member German biomedical innovation group spent two days in Nanjing to experience on the ground the prospects of the city's dual-core engine convergence.
At 7 o'clock in the evening of May 23, the lights of a conference room were still on in the Life Science and Technology Town of Nanjing Jiangning Hi-tech Zone.
Thirty experts, entrepreneurs and representatives of scientific research institutions in the field of biomedicine from Germany are intensively exchanging ideas with Nanjing enterprises and government departments. Many people took out their cell phones to take pictures of the figures and conclusions of the PPT, some people pulled the representatives of the Chinese enterprises to add micro-credit, and some people typed rapidly on the computer.
"We're not looking for partners in NJ, we're looking for peers who can change the world together."
"In the past, people thought of China as a manufacturing powerhouse, providing cost-effective items and raw materials. Now we have a whole new view of China, theChina has become a major source of global clinical innovation."
This is how the members of the German delegation described their feelings about the trip.
This is following the party and government delegation of Nanjing in March last year and March this year to carry out city promotion, the German biopharmaceutical industry in Nanjing, a "return visit".30 people, two days, from Jiangnan to Jiangbei, from the laboratory to the industrialization base, an industrial resonance across 8,000 kilometers, is happening.
The pragmatic Germans had their eye on Nanjing
Why Nanking? The Germans did the math.
In 2025, Nanjing's biomedical industry will have a revenue of 225.1 billion yuan, more than 1,000 regulated enterprises, more than 1,000 high-tech enterprises, and 23 domestic and foreign listed companies.
It's not the numbers themselves that matter offstage, it's what's behind the numbers - the53 universities, 17 academicians in the field of biomedicine, nearly 30 tertiary hospitals, and more than 3,500 medical institutions.
What does that mean?It means a market with clinically validated capabilities and an ecosystem with source innovation.
In this ecology, a large number of innovative achievements have been landed into gold. The relevant person in charge of the Nanjing Biomedical Attack Office introduced that among the biomedical enterprises, theBoth above-scale enterprises and high-tech enterprises have exceeded 1,000, 3 enterprises have been selected as one of the top 100 chemical drug R&D strengths in the country, and 145 specifications of drugs have been approved in 2025, ranking the first in Jiangsu Province, of which 3 are Class 1 innovative drugs, ranking the first in the country. So far this year, Nanjing has submitted six Class 1 innovative drugs for registration, and more than 20 innovative drugs in reserve for Phase III clinical trials.
The German delegation saw not only the scale of Nanjing's industry, but also Nanjing's "transformation efficiency" - from the laboratory to the hospital bed, the city is turning "thesis data" into "clinical data". "Clinical data".
After visiting Nanjing, Petra Tuzin, medical director of hematology at Germany's Forte Pharma, concluded that the city is expected to become an international center for the biomedical industry.
Under this strong gravitational pull, the two sides have accelerated their convergence. Inaugurated during the "Nanjing Day" in March this year"Nanjing Investment Promotion Service Workstation (Germany) (Preparation)".Currently, we have selected and dispatched our resident staff to Germany, and we intend to carry out on-line and off-line publicity on investing in Nanjing. From "staged visits" to "regularized presence", Nanjing's cooperation with Germany is shifting gears and speeding up.
Co-creation beyond "business"
On the morning of May 23rd and 24th, the German delegation came to the park, and they were concerned, "Can we use the public experimental platform here?"
This was the most common question asked during the study tours. Germans are not concerned about the text of the policy, but the specific path to "enter the door". German sports rehabilitation therapist Halil is looking forward to using the brain-computer interface therapeutic instrument of Nanjing Shenqiao Medical Equipment Co.
In April 2025, Merck China signed a memorandum of cooperation with Nanjing Jiangbei New District to promote new drug R&D and medical device investments.
In January this year, Nanjing Syngenta Pharmaceuticals and Boehringer Ingelheim entered into an exclusive global licensing agreement for the joint development of the bispecific antibody SIM0709, for which Syngenta Pharmaceuticals will be entitled to a milestone payment of up to EUR 1,058 million as well as a share of sales. Boehringer Ingelheim has a strong global R&D and commercialization capability in the field of immunity and respiratory diseases, while Syngenta has been deeply cultivating in the field of autoimmune diseases in China for many years, and possesses a strong innovative R&D capability and a deep understanding of the local market. Together, the two companies are expected to accelerate the global development of SIM0709 and bring new therapeutic hope to patients with inflammatory bowel disease around the world at an early date. This is a typical example of "Nanjing R&D + German experience + global market".
In May this year, the Sino-German Overseas Exchange and Innovation Center landed in Qixia Hi-tech Zone, and the European Overseas Innovation Alliance was established simultaneously. The center has introduced several German AI medical projects and promoted 12 Nanjing enterprises to dock the European market.
The Germans bring not only international markets and standards, but also their insight into "Chinese innovation".And what Nanjing gives is a constant stream of vitality, open clinical resources, a stable policy environment, and an industrial ecology that is willing to run with it for 10 years.
This is not a one-time deal, but a two-way run that believes in long-termism.
From "World Pharmaceutical Factory" to "Global Pharmaceutical Port"
In Nanjing, Germans deeply feel the power of Chinese innovation.
Dr. Yuli Huai, Managing Director of the German-Chinese Institute for Economic Research (GCIER), has observed China from her long experience and field research on the front line of Sino-German economic and trade activities. She said.China is now the second largest biopharmaceutical market in the world.In 2025, the entire medical device market volume exceeds 47 billion dollars. By 2035, China's population over the age of 60 will exceed 400 million.
Another plus for German companies is that theChina has continued to narrow the negative list of foreign investment, theThere were 93 items on the 2015 version of the list, and the latest version has been whittled down to 29, in addition to the Ministry of Commerce allowing wholly foreign-owned hospitals to be set up in nine designated regions, including Nanjing.
China is becoming a distribution center for talents, technology, capital and data in the field of biomedicine, and the "world's pharmaceutical factory" is being transformed into a "global pharmaceutical port".
Hui Yuli exclaimed that these biopharmaceutical companies in Nanjing have licensed their R&D results to big pharmaceutical companies around the world.This means that China is not only a buyer, but Nanjing's R&D technology products as well as achievements are also purchased by foreign parties.So German pharmaceutical companies can participate in the Chinese market not only as sellers but also as buyers.
This not only means a market full of competition and cooperation, but also marks a new pattern of life sciences driven by innovation.
China Pharmaceutical University's AI-enabled R&D platforms are amazing. The university supports the integration of 19 databases with its support mapping, including an AI platform for building and screening mega compound libraries and an AI platform for molecule generation and synthetic route prediction, which has already synthesized eight compounds with a 78-fold increase in activity. The AI models developed by the university cover data related to proteins, small molecules, diseases, and pathways of action.
All these data, ultimately, will point to human health. Markus Prachik, Managing Director of Germany's Prachik Biotechnology Consulting, brings a set of data: if the clubs of Europe's five top soccer leagues could fully utilize AI and biotechnology to help elite athletes accurately prevent injuries and prolong their careers, the direct economic losses alone could be reduced by at least 5 billion euros. But he emphasized that the value of the new technology goes far beyond the green field - the same set of logic could be used to intervene in aging-related pathologies, which would require the support of more high-quality data.
The data, as it happens, is NJ's bottom line.In the crossroads of AI and biomedicine, Chinese companies have moved from "following" to "leading". Jia Xiaojia, CEO of E-Lead Technology, combines medical devices with AI in depth and founded Nanjing E-Lead Technology, whose FattaLab Liver Fat Measuring Instrument has been registered and approved by the FDA in the U.S. This is the world's first lightweight liver fat quantitative testing device. This is the world's first lightweight quantitative liver fat detection device, which allows individuals to monitor their liver health on a daily basis. Currently, the product has been launched in the North American market sales, the next step will focus on Europe.
Whether it's Prachik's forward-looking insight into injury prevention or E-Lead's product path from Nanjing to Europe and the United States - they all point to one trend: Sino-German cooperation in the field of AI biomedicine is no longer a simple technology introduction or market exchange, but rather synergistic innovation based on common challenges for the global market.
From "Nanking Day" in Stuttgart.
until (a time)The "German Mission" in Nanjing
From high-level visits to industrial docking
From Laboratory Collaboration to Clinical Translation
--The Story of Nanjing and Germany
It's moving from "meeting" to "co-creation."
