“Made in China” may soon give way to “Discovered/Developed in China.”  This was one of the eye-opening observations a small group of San Antonio biomedical representatives made during a visit to Shanghai in May. 

The group was part of a larger, 70-member delegation of local civic and business leaders who represented San Antonio at the Shanghai World Expo during “San Antonio Days” at the USA Pavilion.  The delegation was led by Mayor Julian Castro, Councilwoman Elisa Chan, and former Mayor Henry Cisneros, Chair of BioMed SA.

As an early supporter and sponsor of the trip, BioMed SA’s goal was to take advantage of this organized community effort to heighten global awareness of San Antonio’s biomedical assets.  This is in line with the non-profit group’s mission to raise the visibility of San Antonio as a City of Science and Health. 

In addition to participating in official events at the Expo, BioMed SA led a small group of delegates from San Antonio’s medical sector on visits to biomedical facilities in Shanghai.  These outings were organized by Xiao-Dong Chen, MD, PhD, a stem cell researcher with the UT Health Science Center’s Department of Restorative Dentistry.  As Shanghai natives, Dr. Chen and his wife, Lilly, provided the BioMed SA group with unusual access to Shanghai’s biomedical sector.

Among the highlights was a half-day visit to the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park – an immense, modern industrial development zone that is home to over 5,800 enterprises, including more than 300 biopharmaceutical companies. While at the park, the BioMed SA group met with Glaxo Smith Kline’s global R&D group for the neurosciences and visited ShangPharma’s ChemPartner Co., one of the world’s largest contract research organizations. 

Another afternoon was spent at the prestigious Jaio-Tong University Medical School, where the BioMed SA group toured the Med-X Research Institute and met with leaders of the Neuroscience and Nanoengineering Center.

Participants in the BioMed SA tours and meetings included Dr. Mauli Agrawal, Dean of Engineering at UTSA; Dr. Steven Davis, Medical Director of the Dermatology & Laser Center of San Antonio; Raul Rodriguez, Board Chair of the UIW Center for Medical Tourism Research; and other members of the San Antonio delegation with an interest in the medical industry.

“It was eye-opening to see firsthand the size, scale and speed of China’s development, which have led to its growth as the world’s second largest economy,” said Ann Stevens, President of BioMed SA. “Going forward, we plan to invite our Chinese counterparts to visit San Antonio’s biomedical sector so we can introduce them to our member companies and institutions.  In the meantime, we will be pursuing potential collaborations and business opportunities with the contacts we made in Shanghai.”

ABOUT BIOMED SA
BioMed SA is a non-profit, membership-based organization, supported in part by Bexar County and the City of San Antonio.  Its mission is to organize and promote San Antonio’s healthcare and biosciences assets to accelerate growth of the sector and enhance San Antonio’s reputation as a City of Science and Health. The city’s healthcare and bioscience industry has added approximately 23,000 net new jobs over the past decade, significantly fueling San Antonio’s growth and employing one out of every seven members of the city’s workforce. As America’s seventh largest city, San Antonio is a community that embraces science and medicine. Its vibrant health care and bioscience industry, a dominant force in the city’s economy with an annual economic impact exceeding $16 billion, combines unique assets and a diversity of resources with a collaborative spirit that is making a global impact on science and health.