Stem cell industry ready to liftoff

By Gu Yang

According to statistics, up to August 1st, 2013, clinical trials on stem cell research publicly registered on the website of Clinical Trial have reached 4704, among which 213 were from China. Though it is far from 2805 of the US, Xu Xiaochun, the director of INCOSC and founder of Boya Life, insists that gap between China and developed countries in stem cell research field is not big -- "we are almost starting at the same time, since the key technology of stem cell has just got breakthrough in recent two or three years, and the development history of the whole industry is just 20 years."

"This is an original contribution in science which is most likely to be accomplished by China!" Xu Xiaochun stated briefly. The next few years will be the critical period for the development of global stem cell industry, and China is not to miss this valuable but fleeting opportunity.

A "gold mine" of USD400 billion is to be discovered

Who will be the next Microsoft? Even Gates himself admits that this company will surely come from the field of biological medicine, and it has been a consensus in the industry that stem cell industry is one of the cores and the most promising modules in the field of biological medicine.

In global market, stem cell technology and its development has been crazily pursued by international capital market in recent years, and relevant market value of stem cell concept stocks listed in NASDAQ only has exceeded USD30 billion. It is predicted by experts that the potential market of global stem cell industry will be about USD80 billion within the next two years, and reach up to USD400 billion around 2020.

In China, the stem cell industry also has bright prospects. According to the research reports from the institution named First Capital, the stem cell industry of China has formed a complete industry chain from the upstream storage to the downstream clinical application, and it is predicted that the income of stem cell industry in the coming 5 years will increase to RMB 30 billion from the current RMB 2 billion, at the average annual growth rate of 170 percent.

For many people, the stem cell, with the ability to repair and generate all human cells, has not been a strange concept. However, there are still some widespread misunderstandings in society about the cognition of stem cells in clinical application.

"Stem cell application doesn't only mean the storage of stem cells, but it has many downstream applications. Moreover, stem cells can also be used as a tool for new medicine research and development as well as other personalized medicine." Xu Xiaochun told the journalist that, Boya Life, founded by him, is such a group starting from stem cell research, turns the view to the whole field of biological economy while constantly extending upstream and downstream on the industry chain.

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Stem cell industry ready to liftoff