Introduction
A statue of Mao Zedong stands on the campus of Fudan University in Shanghai, a hub of biotechnology research in China.
As China increases its presence in the global biomedical sector, its most pressing needs include more homegrown innovation and a well-trained workforce. Today, there are many career opportunities for both Western scientists and Western-trained Chinese scientists who will be instrumental in training and developing a biotechnology workforce to meet the rising demand (Wong , G., Nat. Biotechnol. 26, 243–244, 2008). As the Chinese government has stated its goals for universal health care and equal access to public services for its 1.3 billion people, the country is poised, perhaps within a generation, to take its place as a leader in global biotechnology research and development. Young people are eager to learn and speak English, they are hungry to learn about biotechnology, and there is strong support for excellence in education, extensive research infrastructure and other conditions for creating a fertile environment for start-up and multinational R&D.
Chinese scientists have played a significant part in the success of biotech R&D in the West. For example, Fu-Kuen Lin isolated the gene for erythropoietin at Amgen and David Leung cloned VEGF cDNA in Goeddel and Ferrara's lab at Genentech. Now, many are returning to China, taking their skills, experience and professional contacts with them. The time is right for Western biotech and pharma companies to invest in and train a homegrown Chinese workforce to take advantage of the country's huge talent base and rich resources. Reinhard Ebner of Avalon Pharmaceuticals says, "During the last decades of the 20th century, it was generally assumed of a majority of pre- and postdoctoral researchers visiting from China that—upon completion of their training or their fellowships—they would, more often than not, settle and build careers in the West. But this is no longer the case, with the generation of young researchers that we see coming through now, whose desire to build expertise and expand their horizons is coupled with a keen awareness of the growing number of promising opportunities back home. For some years now we have been seeing greater numbers of and more senior level expatriates returning. This is a development that should draw more attention from US policymakers than it does, but for the future of mainland Chinese biomedicine it is great news."
Overcoming the obstacles
However, there are other obstacles to the establishment of biomedical R&D–based companies in China besides the number of high-level scientists. The first is the lack of biotechnology education programs. Although the quality of higher education in biology, chemistry and other traditional science subjects is good, there is little practical training in the laboratory methods and procedures that are used in industry. Matthew Levy, director at Applied Biosystems in Beijing, says, "Most of the biotech-related programs [in China] are the same standard biology programs [as] in the United States. There is very little focused specifically on the biotech industry." Steven Ling Feng Liu, a PhD student in Fudan who will be doing a postdoctoral fellowship in Seattle, explains that there are some special biotech-related curricula for undergraduate and graduate student majors in life science and biology, but owing to the limitations of time, the contexts of the curricula are relatively easy and wide-scoped. He notes: "There are also biotech-related educational programs for students by equipment and reagent supply companies. Although their major purpose is to promote sales, they bring up-to-date information on biotechnological products to the campus and extend the students' knowledge on biotechnology."
According to Levy, "Most companies are hiring academic students with very limited biotech experience. As such, there is a huge gap of experienced biotech workers. Unlike in the US, where most biotech hires come from a competing company, the biotech workers in China primarily come from academia." Indeed, most biotech-specific training in China is performed by companies or by industry-university collaborations. Chen Chun-Lin, CEO of Medicilon/MPI Preclinical Research (Shanghai), says that his company has collaborated with several universities to train students. And Zhu Huaxing, CEO of SinoBio (Shanghai) claims that university training is good enough that only one to three months of further training is needed to teach the employees the different principles of academia and industry.
Heinz-Kurt Hochkeppel, formerly of Novartis, says big pharma is starting to realize these obstacles, and is starting to invest in the long-term education of young Chinese scientists in their subsidiaries in China. For example, Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research in Shanghai is training newly hired scientists 'on the job' by offering continuous learning and development opportunities and providing an achievement-oriented teamwork culture, thereby laying the foundation for the development of emerging technologies and the development of the concept of mechanism-based medicine.
To get a head start on training the next generation of biotech workers, Chinese companies such as Medicilon, Cyagen (Guangzhou), SinoBio, NovoMed (Shanghai), PanAsia Bio (Shanghai) and Crown Bioscience (Beijing) have begun to offer internships to students. Crown Bioscience president Faming Zhang calls internships "a good training opportunity." Coupled with international scholarships and exchange and cooperative programs, these are making it easier for Chinese students to gain valuable industry experience, either at home or overseas. Stephen Lam, a biotech director at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Park, says "Hong Kong is bilingual, which makes it a unique location close to mainland China, and with its British history and world class biomedical research institutions, can provide biotech training for students from mainland China."
Another source of biotechnology workers is employees in other industrial sectors. Some continuing education programs exist, but their value is debatable. And retraining programs for workers from other sectors are also in use, but, according to Levy, "Most people need to depend on 'on the job' training to improve their skills."
Finally, with respect to compensation, some Chinese biotech employees are eligible for bonuses as a performance incentive. At the moment, superior administrative staff tend to get higher bonuses and normal workers very little, but as the industry grows, this may change. Likewise, as more biotech companies in China consider public offerings, offering stock options is another compensation option.
Conclusions
China's biotechnology sector will continue to grow, driven by domestic demand and global investment. There is currently a less skilled and experienced workforce for applied sciences, but with a large student population intensely interested in learning about biotechnology, the requisite skills can be learned quickly. Collaborative efforts by Chinese universities and companies will ensure a steady supply of well-trained workers for more homegrown innovation for China to join the global biomedical sector. Great opportunities are present for both US and European-trained scientists who will be essential for accomplishing the task of training and developing a biotech workforce to meet the demand in China.
