HONG KONG – China’s biopharmaceutical industry has been built around hundreds of dedicated zones that enjoy a series of benefits from municipal, provincial and central governments. These biotech parks, often independently managed, seek to attract multiple companies from both China and abroad. The one-stop shops are where “companies can combine suppliers, clients and the talent pool together,” said Fan Jiang, manager of consulting and research at Bioinsight, a consultancy in China. “Biotech parks are the essential driving force of the industry. When biotech firms gather at one spot, there will be a maximum use of resources.

Biotech companies in China typically congregate in one of the hundreds of industrial parks across the country. Many of these parks are often located within specially dedicated zones where they can enjoy benefits like government-backed financing, tax breaks and grants for research and staff.

“The Chinese government is very powerful and determined to develop the biotech industry, so there are capital inflows and policy revisions just to stimulate the growth of the industry,” Fan told BioWorld Today.

Right Site Asia, an industrial real estate specialist, estimated that there are more than 1 ,000 biotech industrial parks across the country. Most of these parks are small and spread around the country; the largest and most successful are in major urban centers.

An informal list of what might be the 10 largest, most successful and best known of these parks includes the following:

Guangzhou International Biotech Island

The Guangzhou International Biotech Island in the Guangzhou Development District (GDD), claims to be the new center of China’s bio economy and bio finance. It may not be far off. When it held its official opening in July 2011, the Bio-Island had signed up 30 companies to locate to the first national level scientific park in South China.

The district is at the core of the Guangzhou National Biotech Industry Base, which offers support in a range of areas including human resources, commerce and exhibitions. The district is a two-hour drive away from Hong Kong, and it’s within the Guangzhou Development District, one of the most important special economic zones in China. The Bio-Island has its own website at bioisland.gdd.gov.cn and has attracted a range of companies, particularly in areas in which the city has relative strengths such as stem cell research and regenerative medicine.

Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai

Located on 25 sq km in the modern Pudong New Area, across the river from old Shanghai, the Shanghai Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park first launched in July 1992. The park includes areas dedicated to technical innovation, the high-tech industry, research and education along with a residential area. Since August 1999, Zhajiang park has made biotechnology one of its pillar industries, which has helped it attract leading multinational firms like Pfizer Inc. and Astrazeneca plc among more than 400 domestic and foreign life sciences companies, research institutes and service organizations.

Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone

As a member of the International Association of Technology Parks and a technology park recognized by the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) forum, the Shenzhen Hi-Tech Industrial Development Park (SHIP) is part of the Shenzhen International Science & Technology Business Platform, which includes 32 multinationals and companies from 45 different countries. SHIP takes up a tiny 0.6 percent of Shenzhen’s total area but its gross industrial output in 2011 was more than ¥405 billion (US$66.2 billion).

Suzhou Biobay, Suzhou

Located in Suzhou Industrial Park’s Dushu Lake Science and Education Innovation District, the Suzhou BioBay Park covers just under 1 sq km and offers a series of industry services like an incubator and an accelerator to support the development of the emerging biological and nanotechnology industries. Suzhou BioBay has developed gene technology and nanotechnology capabilities and may have the most complete industrial chain in China.

Taizhou Medical Hi-Tech Industrial Zone

Located in Taizhou, in Jiangsu province, the Taizhou Medical High-Tech Industrial Development Zone is also known as the China Medical City (CMC) and is China’s first national level medical high-tech industrial development zone. It has an area of 25 sq km and includes major components for scientific research and industrial production, a convention and exhibition center, a medical area and a more general area. The Chinese government intends to build the country’s largest and the most complete medical industry base here.

Tianjin Economic-Technological Development

As one of China’s earliest development zones in China, the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA) was set up on Dec. 6, 1984. TEDA is 60 km east of Tianjin, which puts it near both Beijing and the fast growing city of Tianjin. The biopharmaceutical industry within the area produced approximately ¥16 billion in 2012, about 2.24 percent of the whole area’s production value.

Wuhan East Lake Hi-Tech Development Zone

Located at the Wuhan East Lake National Innovation Demonstration Area and host to the Wuhan Biolake, the East Lake zone is the second key national industry base built in the area also known as the Optics Valley of China. Sitting on 15 sq km, Wuhan Biolake has become one of China’s fastest growing biotech parks despite being only 5 years old; it launched in November 2008. Biolake expects to generate ¥200 billion in output by 2018 across six major areas: bio-innovation, bio-pharma, bio-agriculture, bio-manufacturing, medical devices and medical health.

Wuxi New District, Wuxi

Once known as the Wuxi Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone, the Wuxi New District is in a suburban part of Wuxi and about 120 km from Shanghai. It is a national-level development zone that was approved by the State Council in 1992.

In 2012, the zone’s gross output value exceeded ¥58 billion, making it the second largest center in the province in terms of economic value and larger than the provincial capital of Nanjing. The district attracts plenty of foreign investors, including 35 Fortune 500 companies that have set up R&D centers here.

Zhongguancun Science Park, Beijing

In 2006, Z-Park Daxing Bio-medicine Industry Park was brought into the Zhongguancun Science Park. Z-Park Daxing Bio-medicine Industry Park is a biotech industrialization base with a stated goal of attracting biological technology innovation, product R&D, project incubation and technology industrialization and manufacturing. Among the domestic biotech companies based here are Beijing Minhai Biological Technology, Vacinbio and SL Pharm. The much larger Zhongguancun Park has leveraged national level research resources and its location right in the capital to turn itself into a world-class industry town.

Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone

The Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone (CDHT) includes separate parks in the south and west of the city that host some 29,000 companies, most of them small but in a wide range of industries. Although biotech is not its focus, the zone is the fourth largest of the 88 state-level high-tech zones in China. The companies in the area generated industrial output worth ¥223 billion in 2012 and added value of ¥87 billion. This made it the largest industrial zone in Sichuan Province. In addition to its national status, the Chengdu zone has also been recognized as a National Model District by the Central Government.