In the year, China's life sciences industry ranked first in the Asia-Pacific region in terms of investment amount, which reflects the effective support for the industry and demonstrates the market's confidence in potential opportunities.
According to Jones Lang LaSalle, in the first nine months of 2023, the amount of investment in the life sciences sector in the Asia-Pacific region has exceeded that of the whole of 2022; Broken down by market, China dominates, with more than $7 billion invested in the first nine months. It is worth mentioning that Concora, a subsidiary of Qicheng, acquired the Life Science Industrial Park located in Zhangjiang Medical Valley, with an acquisition amount of 8500 million yuan; The industrial park was independently developed by Simcere Pharmaceutical as its R&D headquarters in Shanghai; After the acquisition, Simcere continues to focus on the research and development of innovative drugs in the park. >>Click here to review "Jones Lang LaSalle Assists Kangdayuan in Acquisition of Zhangjiang Medical Valley Life Medicine Industrial Park".
In 2023, self-consumption life science companies will divest non-core assets to achieve the purpose of recovering funds through ** property, and then focus on core businesses such as R&D and production. As a result, the sale-leaseback model is becoming more and more attractive to investors. Under this model, the acquirer is responsible for operating and managing the industrial park, including R&D labs and office space; The ** party has become the anchor tenant, able to provide stable rental income and ensure the occupancy rate of the park. ”
The construction of life science industry clusters is inseparable from years of national and local policy planning and corresponding support
At the national level, in 2016, the Healthy China 2030 Plan was officially promulgated, which aims to improve medical services and financial coverage through legislative reform and institutional restructuring.
At the local level, biomedicine is one of Shanghai's three leading industries, and in the latest five-year development plan, Shanghai has also prioritized industrial growth.
In addition, the scale of Shanghai's life sciences industry has reached 853.7 billion yuan in 2022 and is expected to exceed one trillion yuan in 2025.
China's life sciences industry clusters are well known and attractive to those looking to develop their careers in the industry. Taking Shanghai as an example, one of the advantages of Shanghai, which is different from other cities in the Asia-Pacific region such as Bangalore, is that it has a huge pool of life science talents: rich resources of universities and R&D institutions continue to inject talent vitality into technological innovation, and form a benign interaction with life science enterprises and clinical hospitals in the city, helping Shanghai to become the country's leading life science industry highland. As of 2022, the number of life sciences employees in Shanghai has reached 2780,000 people, including more than 1,000 national-level talents, academicians, Changjiang Scholars and other high-level talents account for 15 in the country. >> click here to review the "Blockbuster Release! 2023 Shanghai Industrial Park Market Development and Prospect***
Most of China's public hospitals are affiliated with top universities, which produce a steady stream of life sciences talent," said the People's Republic of ChinaDing Ting"For universities, close collaboration with hospitals provides professors and professionals with direct resources to conduct clinical trials for new patents and drugs. Such collaborations can effectively translate research results into practical applications, achieving a win-win situation for both academia and the healthcare industry. ”
Insight into opportunities: When the time is ripe for investment, AI-driven drug development may bring new opportunities
Since 2020, investment in industrial parks has continued to be the focus of attentionAmong them, the particularity and scarcity of life science real estate's requirements for environmental impact assessment and property hardware conditions, coupled with the resilience of leasing performance, make it one of the most sought-after and popular targets.
The rapid development of the public REITs market is another major attraction for investors. Launched for the first time in 2021, China's public REITs mainly include underlying assets such as industrial parks, warehousing and logistics, and affordable rental housing. By the end of 2023, among the 29 publicly offered REITs that have been listed in the country, nine industrial park infrastructure REITs have been successfully issued and expanded.
Among the industrial park infrastructure REITs that were successfully issued and expanded last year, many of the underlying assets are high-quality projects in Shanghai Industrial Park, and the exit through public REITs will become one of the important exit mechanisms for industrial park properties in the future, and it will also have stronger industrial attributes when exiting. With the gradual expansion of the public REITs market, more industrial park property investors will consider long-term stable layout. ”
It must be admitted that the amount of investment and financing in China's life sciences sector will still be low in 2023, which will curb the leasing demand of enterprises in the industry, but it is worth noting that the support for this industry on the policy side has not decreased: by 2025, Shanghai alone has allocated about 9 million square meters of land for the development of the life sciences industry, which is convenient for the implementation of projects.
Ding TingAdmittedly, the recovery of investment and financing activities in the primary market will drive the leasing demand of the life sciences industry, otherwise the life sciences real estate market may be oversupplied in the future. However, new opportunities are emerging within the industry, "for example, the trend of tech companies venturing into life sciences such as AI-driven drug discovery could present new opportunities." ”Ding Ting"Investors will continue to appreciate the sustainable cash flow and stable returns provided by life sciences projects, especially for insurance and financial institutions and other institutions with core or core gain investment strategies," he said. ”