On August 8, the first domestic terifluoramine tablets developed by CGeneTech were put on the market, bringing new choices and drug supply guarantees for domestic patients with multiple sclerosis.

In this regard, Yu Qiang, founder and CEO of CGeneTech Biomedical Technology (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., was gratified and said that after more than ten years of running, the company finally took the first step in the long march.

In May 2018, multiple sclerosis was included in the first batch of rare diseases in China.

Yu Qiang said that in fact, rare diseases are not rare. But there is no medicine to cure, which is the unspeakable pain of patients with rare diseases. The earlier multiple sclerosis is diagnosed and treated, the better it can relieve symptoms and delay disease development.

CGeneTech was founded in Suzhou Industrial Park in 2010. Its core team has decades of experience in the whole life cycle of international drugs and is committed to the research, development and industrialization of small molecule innovative drugs for breakthrough therapies. Relying on the integrated drug R&D technology platform and diversified business vision, the company has built a rich pipeline of innovative drugs, covering many disease fields such as hypoglycemic, anti-cancer and rare diseases.

Yu Qiang has a solid academic background in the field of chemistry. He has successively obtained bachelor's, master's and doctor's degrees in chemistry from Peking University, Kansas State University to the University of Kansas. After graduation, he worked in the pharmaceutical chemical technology company for many years, and successfully founded a company to develop new drug molecular modules. After nearly 20 years of overseas career, he returned to China in 2010 and co founded CGeneTech with Mr. Ding Juping, who has rich experience in new drug research and development and application.

Yu Qiang has always been accompanied by the three soul questions of "why do you want to return to China to start a business", "why do you want to choose Suzhou to start a business", and "how difficult it is to start a business". He always gives standard answers to the first two, but has no answer to the last one.

Talking about why he returned to China to start a business, Yu Qiang explained: "there are two main reasons. First, around 2008, we found a series of active compounds aimed at DPP-IV, the target of diabetes, and hoped to promote R & D and industrialization as soon as possible. At that time, the domestic support and entrepreneurial environment for returnees, especially the policies on biomedicine, were becoming more and more mature."

In addition, it is Yu Qiang's wish to let domestic patients use affordable good drugs and new drugs, which is also an important factor in his choice to return to China to start his own business. "This is a right choice made at the right time. China is full of changes, opportunities and challenges. I think there is much to be done."

"The decision to come to Suzhou to start a business was convinced by the emails. When I was still in the United States, I asked the Suzhou Industrial Park government about entrepreneurship and received professional replies. I felt that my English was better than mine, which made me curious about Suzhou." When Yu Qiang set foot on the land of Suzhou, he found that Suzhou, where "everyone sleeps on the river", has a strong innovation ability.

Now, Yu Qiang has been dormant on the thorny road of entrepreneurship for more than ten years. He found that in addition to being very livable, Suzhou also provided considerate care and precise services for talents, and was able to take into account various pain points in the growth process of biomedical innovative enterprises, providing a variety of preferential policies.

How difficult is entrepreneurship? Yu Qiang said that this is a question in the present continuous tense and there is no answer. In his own words, this is the "Long March" of China's bio pharmaceutical industry. Once given up, it means that all previous efforts and sacrifices have been wasted.

"2015 has been the hardest year so far." Yu Qiang recalled that when he started his business in China, his income was very low, and it was very difficult for the company to raise funds. He did not have enough money for clinical trials. In 2015, the company had capital problems, and the brain drain was serious. All the people who wanted to recruit did not come to the company when they were offered an offer. That year was really tough.

Many years later, looking back on that period of time, Yu Qiang said that "feelings are a kind of power". He said that the original intention of driving himself to complete this road was to "let domestic patients use affordable good drugs and new drugs. I never thought of giving up. If I gave up, all the efforts ahead, including the sacrifices made by my family, would not be worth it."

"A general's success will wither away." Yu Qiang lamented that many returned scientific researchers in the past, after experiencing the difficulties of entrepreneurship, still fell behind the long cycle of drug research and development, huge investment in research and development, and extremely low success rate of research and development. This is exactly one of the fundamental reasons why VCs were not keen on this field in the past few years. After all, after the investment, they may face long-term problems such as no take-up and blocked exit channels, which obviously means "no money" for institutions. This has made returned entrepreneurs suffer from a shortage of funds.

"I am lucky. As long as I am still running on the road, there is hope." Since his return to China, Tyco has been developing along the path of "me too to me first", and its clinical applications have increased year by year. Up to now, CGeneTech has accumulated nearly 600 million yuan of financing.

Yu Qiang said that he just wanted to take the team to every step. Keep moving forward, do not stay mediocre, let alone fall behind. It feels like a long-distance race. You must hold on to the leader. You must be in the first echelon. In the first echelon, you will have the opportunity to surpass.

Yu Qiang is jokingly called the best poet in the medical field, and the best poet in the poetic field. Drug research and development is like the creation of ancient poetry. Medicine is in poetry, and poetry is in people's hearts. Suzhou has been favored by literati since ancient times, whether it is the landscape of small bridges, flowing water and people's homes, or the exquisite taste of Jiangnan. All this has provided Yu Qiang with spiritual comfort.

                                                                                                                                                      Source: China News Network Author: Zhou Jianlin