China’s $220 Billion Biotech Initiative Is Struggling to Take Off
Despite enormous investment in the sector since 2015 and some huge IPOs, the nation approved its first mRNA vaccine only this year.
A Covid vaccine made by China National Biotec Group in 2021.
Photographer: Thomas Peter/ReutersFour years after Li Hangwen returned from the US to launch a startup in Shanghai to develop a cancer vaccine with messenger RNA technology, a mysterious coronavirus emerged in the city of Wuhan. Trained in the US and long inspired by Moderna Inc.’s efforts at tapping genetic material for treatments, the cancer researcher quickly turned his efforts toward developing a shot against Covid-19 for China.
After three years of painstaking labor, working nights and weekends and holidays, Li was finally able to get his startup, Stemirna Therapeutics, to produce an mRNA vaccine. But it completed human testing only in late 2022, when the worst of the pandemic had passed in much of the world. So far the treatment has been greenlighted only in Laos; it’s still awaiting approval in China.