Stepping into Room 927, Building C, Gongfang Times, located on Lanyuan Road in the Huayuan Industrial Zone, the blue characters of Tianjin Accendatech Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as 'Accendatech') immediately catch the eye. This is a national high-tech enterprise located in the Tianjin Binhai High-tech Industrial Park. On the wall of the company's honor room, 18 patents authorized in cooperation with Nankai University are displayed. Twelve years ago, two overseas-returned PhDs, Wang Peng and Chen Yue, founded this company. Today, in addition to the parent company located in Tianjin, there are seven subsidiaries. Looking at these scientific research achievements before him, Chen Yue was filled with emotion, as if time had returned to when he first returned to China…

What foreign countries can do well, we Chinese can also do well.

In 1997, Chen Yue, a pharmacy graduate, went abroad to study and obtained a doctorate in pharmacy in the United States. After that, she joined a world-renowned bioscience company to work in drug research and development, earning an annual salary of more than $100,000, which was a well-paid job at the time.

In 2007, Chen Yue returned to China to attend an international pharmaceutical academic conference. At the conference, he learned that the profit margin for the same anticancer drugs could be more than 100 times that between domestic and foreign markets, and that it would take until the patent protection period had expired to produce generic versions. This greatly inspired him to return to China and serve his country.

'Do you think the production cost of that drug is very high? It might only cost a few hundred yuan per course of treatment, but they sell it to you for tens of thousands. So at that time, I felt that China couldn't keep waiting to import patents. We had to have our own patents and our own innovations. I felt that if foreign countries could do it well, we Chinese could do it well too.' Holding the new drug developed by his team, Chen Yue told the reporter firmly that this was the biggest motivation for him to decide to return to China.

It was at that meeting that Chen Yue's speech caught the attention of Wang Peng, the first dean of the School of Pharmacy at Nankai University. Chen Yue's expression of willingness to return to China to serve his country also greatly pleased Wang Peng. Wang Peng told Chen Yue that Nankai University's doors were open to him, welcoming him back to conduct scientific research.

In July 2007, Chen Yue resigned from his company in the United States and came to Nankai University in October 2007. After a short period of preparation and adjustment, in January 2008, Chen Yue officially began his teaching career at Nankai. His research focus was on the medicinal chemistry of cancer stem cells, a research topic completely different from his previous one in the United States, thus beginning a brand new scientific research journey.

Breaking down technological barriers to achieve localization

Scientific research is never smooth sailing. Chen Yue wanted to localize the anti-cancer drugs she was developing. Besides resolving the issue of technology patents, the imported ingredients and raw materials urgently needed for the research also faced foreign technological barriers. 'In 2009, we looked for ways to purchase large quantities of parthenolide. The cheapest option was from an Israeli company, costing $180,000 per kilogram—completely unaffordable. What we wanted to do was produce anti-cancer drugs that ordinary Chinese people could afford. If the cost was so high, then our research would lose its meaning and its original purpose.' Chen Yue's tone became somewhat serious as she said this.

The difficulties they faced did not discourage Chen Yue and his colleagues. To break through the technological barriers set up by multinational corporations, Chen Yue and his team searched through ancient Chinese medicine prescriptions and the Compendium of Materia Medica, and discovered that a single component from the root of Magnolia officinalis could inhibit the development of brain tumors.

'This plant is unique to my country, with very high yields in places like Henan. Moreover, the effective components extracted from this plant can reach 6%, far exceeding the 0.1% extracted from previous foreign raw materials.' This excited Chen Yue and his team. More importantly, in the local area, the trees of Magnolia denudata are usually sold to the city, while the roots are generally discarded and used by local farmers primarily for firewood, having no other value. However, this was crucial for Chen Yue's research. Therefore, Chen Yue purchased these Magnolia denudata roots at a high price, truly turning waste into treasure and also contributing to the economic income of local farmers to some extent.

When talking about this unexpected discovery, Chen Yue couldn't hide his joy, always attributing it to his good fortune. However, only he knows how much effort went into this 'luck.' The technological barriers to raw materials were broken down, and a new anti-cancer drug was born through extraction and synthesis, all of which was domestically produced. This drug has a selective killing effect on cancer stem cells. And its cost is more than 100 times lower than imported similar products. Chen Yue happily told reporters, 'Lower production costs mean this is a drug that ordinary people can afford; one gram costs only 10 yuan.'

What we need to do is create in China

Treating gliomas has long been a global medical challenge. After eight years of research, Chen Yue and his team have successfully developed an anti-brain cancer drug with completely independent intellectual property rights, marking the first time a domestically produced Western medicine has entered clinical application in a Western country. His independently developed anti-cancer drug, ACT001, has been approved for clinical trials in Australia for the treatment of gliomas, representing the first time a drug with independent intellectual property rights from Tianjin has entered the clinical medical field of a developed country. This project has also been included in the National Twelfth Five-Year Plan for New Drug Development and the Tianjin Anti-Cancer Major Plan, receiving key support. Simultaneously, it has obtained orphan drug designation in the United States and the European Union, a first for Tianjin and one of the first eight independently developed drugs in China to receive orphan drug designation in Europe and the United States. Clinical trials in Europe and the United States will enjoy a comprehensive package of support policies from the European and American drug regulatory agencies.

Chen Yue said, 'Scientific research results are only the first step. The second step we need to take is to quickly industrialize these results.'

To rapidly industrialize this technological achievement, Chen Yue registered and established Tianjin Accendatech Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. adopting a mature industry-academia-research mechanism from the United States and actively seeking financing from the capital market. Currently, Chen Yue and his team have obtained seven Chinese patents and numerous overseas patent authorizations in Russia, South Korea, the United States, the European Union, and Japan, realizing the dream of Chinese-developed and manufactured drugs reaching the world.

'What I'm doing isn't imitation or following others, but a completely innovative research and development project. It's not just about 'Made in China,' but also about 'Created in China.' I hope that once this drug is on the market, it can give back to our country and our society,' Chen Yue said.

Difficulty in obtaining financing was also a major concern.

For more than a decade, Chen Yue's team has been focusing on the development of original new drugs. Among them, ACT001, a new anti-cancer drug for glioblastoma, a highly malignant tumor, has successfully entered clinical trials in Australia and has successively obtained orphan drug status in the United States and the European Union, which is expected to provide new treatment methods for this global medical challenge.

Although progress seems smooth now, it is well known that new drug development often requires a long cycle and carries a great risk of failure. Financing difficulties were also a major concern for Chen Yue: 'During the most difficult time, I mortgaged my only house to the company, which meant that if I really failed, I might go bankrupt and owe a huge debt.'

Chen Yue said, 'Our financing went through two stages. The first stage was angel investment. Before 2013, the company raised 5 million yuan from several individual investors, but as the company developed, we needed to take a step further. Later, we started to seek financing from professional institutions. However, due to the lack of collateral and the high risk, it was difficult to obtain loans through traditional financial institutions.'

It wasn't until 2013 that Chen Yue came into contact with the regional equity market in Tianjin. This market, through the services of the capital market, attracted and gathered a large number of investment and financing institutions, including banks, trusts, securities firms, as well as micro-loan companies, factoring companies, leasing companies, etc. Through the aggregation of these institutions and resources, companies were able to connect with each other in their selection.

The equity market opened a new door for Accendatech. They listed on this platform in 2013, and over the years, their total social financing reached 100 million yuan, providing strong support for the domestic and international clinical trials of their new drugs. 'It has a major advantage: a third-party regulatory platform that ensures the company's financial management is very standardized, with sufficient information disclosure. Everyone can trade on this platform, making it easy for us to attract shareholders. Therefore, every time we issue new shares, they are snapped up immediately, often in short supply,' Chen Yue said.

In addition, due to its strong technical capabilities, Chen Yue's project has received multiple grants from the Tianjin Municipal Science and Technology Bureau, including the Anti-Cancer Major Program Special Fund and the Science and Technology Support Program. In Chen Yue's words, 'When we were in our most difficult time, the government provided us with timely support, which further strengthened our confidence in research and development.'

With the progress of scientific research and the continuous development of the company, Chen Yue's company has obtained multiple international clinical trial qualifications for its drugs, and some financing institutions have approached them to discuss cooperation after learning about their independent research and development technology. When talking about these changes, Chen Yue insists that 'in order to achieve long-term development, the company's independent research and development capabilities must not be ignored, because our own technology will never be subject to others, which is our confidence and dignity.'

At the same time, Chen Yue also wants to call on investment institutions to pay more attention to and have more confidence in industries or projects with long investment and output cycles.

Chen Yue told reporters that the company is currently conducting three clinical trials and is also applying for Phase II clinical trials for other cancers and autoimmune diseases, and still has further financing needs. However, they are full of confidence in the future. Chen Yue revealed that the company plans to start the listing process on the STAR Market or the Hong Kong Pharmaceutical Board within two years. The goal is to achieve sales revenue of over 1 billion yuan and profits of over 300 million yuan within five years of the launch of its first new drug. As the company's new drug research and development results are gradually transformed, the company will strive to achieve its long-term goal of sales revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan, profits exceeding 3 billion yuan, and market capitalization exceeding 100 billion yuan within 10 years.