​从世界工厂到世界实验室的巨大飞跃|南华早报

南华早报记者 左茂红

科技与战略风云学会，受过科学训练的理性爱国者们组建的智库。科学素养，家国情怀，横跨文理，纵览风云。

导读：The central government is pushing innovation as the core of the country’s economic future but there are some huge hurdles to overcome.

中央政府正在推动创新作为未来国家经济的核心，但也有一些巨大的障碍需要克服。

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Shanghai biotech firm founder Wen Danyi has good reason to be confident about her company’s prospects.

一家上海生物技术公司的创始人闻丹忆，有很好的理由对她的公司的前景充满信心。

Wen and her five-year-old contract research company Shanghai LIDE Biotech are helping pharmaceutical giants like Merck develop cancer drugs in a country in dire need of better and cheaper medications.

闻丹忆和她5岁的合同研究公司上海立迪生物技术，在一个急需更好、更廉价的药物治疗的国家里，正在帮助像默克这样的制药巨头开发抗癌药物。

About 12,000 people are diagnosed with cancer and 7,500 others die from the disease each day in China, home to the world’s biggest ageing population.

在中国这个拥有世界上最大的老龄人口的国家，每天大约有12000人被诊断为癌症，还有7500人死于这种疾病。

For Wen, it’s personal. After 17 years of studying and working in the United States, as well as surgery for thyroid cancer, she returned to China to have a bigger impact on a society. “Five years ago, there were few Chinese companies making new drugs, but in recent years demand from local clients has burgeoned, ” Wen said.

对闻丹忆来说，这是个亲身的问题。经过在美国17年的学习和工作，以及甲状腺癌的手术治疗，她回到了中国，为了对社会产生更大的影响。“五年前，很少有中国企业制造新的药物，但近年来本地客户的需求猛增。”闻丹忆说。

It’s still early days, though. Wen’s firm reported 70 per cent growth in revenues to 10.2 million yuan (HK$11.85 million) last year, but its losses were more than double that income, according to its published financial statements.

不过，事情仍然在早期。去年，根据闻丹忆的公司发布的财务报表，收入增长70%，达到1020万元（1185万港元），但支出超过收入的两倍。

Nevertheless, Shanghai LIDE is an example of the kind of innovation-driven enterprise that the central government hopes can help shift the economy’s focus from cheap exports to sustainable services.

然而，中央政府希望创新驱动的企业可以帮助把经济的重点从廉价的出口转向可持续的服务，上海立迪就是这类企业的一个例子。

And like Shanghai LIDE, China can claim some progress in its quest. It has made it into the top 25 in the World Intellectual Property Organisation’s Global Innovation Index. China’s State Intellectual Property Office also granted 359,000 patents last year, the most for any country.

正如上海立迪，中国在其征途中可以宣称一些进展。中国通过努力进入了世界知识产权组织的全球创新指数的前25位。去年，中国国家知识产权局还颁发了359000项专利，在所有国家中是最多的。

But many of those advances are refinements of existing designs rather than breakthroughs, and few translate into practical benefits, researchers say.

但这些进步中许多是现有设计的改进，而不是突破，只有很少转化成了实际的好处，研究人员说。

“The ultimate goal of innovation should be to turn achievements on paper into profit – to create greater value for companies and society and, in this sense, our  innovation is incomplete,” said Xu Chunming, deputy head of Shanghai University’s Intellectual Property Institute.

“创新的终极目标应该是将纸上的成就转化为利润，——为公司和社会创造更大的价值，在这个意义上说，我们的创新是不完整的，”上海大学知识产权研究所副主任许春明说。

Xu said most Chinese patent applications were driven by government incentives – universities applied for patents because they could get government funding for certain projects. And businesses did the same to qualify for the tax breaks and subsidies open to “hi-tech” firms.

许春明说，大多数中国专利申请是由政府激励驱动的——大学申请专利，是因为它们可能从某些项目得到政府的资助。企业也做同样的事，为了获得对“高科技”公司的税收减免和补贴。

Commercial creativity is also held back by the lack of protection for intellectual property, labyrinthine approval procedures for new products and little funding for private-sector research.

抑制商业创造力的因素中，也包括对知识产权缺少保护，对新产品的审批程序如同迷宫，以及对私营部门的研究很少有资助。

Wen said China might be keen to lure talent back from overseas but in the business of cancer drug research, domestic firms made mainly “me too” or “me better” drugs based upon existing products overseas.

闻丹忆说，中国可能热切希望从海外吸引人才，但在抗癌药物研究的业务中,国内企业做的主要是基于现有海外产品的“我也有”或者“我更好”的药物。

​Few Chinese advances reap practical benefits

中国的技术进步很少获得实际利益

Wang Xuegong, deputy chairman of the Chinese Pharmaceutical Enterprises Association, said that in the last five to 10 years, more Chinese companies had started to develop their own drugs based on pharmaceutical breakthroughs made by their US  or European counterparts.

中国制药企业协会副主席王学恭表示，在过去的5到10年里，越来越多的中国企业开始基于他们美国或欧洲同行的制药突破来开发自己的药物。

The flow of talent back to China had accelerated the process, with ventures like Wen’s helping develop many of those new drugs, he said.

随着闻丹忆的这样的企业帮助开发许多这些新药，人才回到中国的流动已经加快了进程，他说。

“We are moving closer to the leaders, but we still don’t have a strong ability to make our own breakthroughs,” Wang said.

“我们正在接近领导者，但是我们还没有很强的做出我们自己的突破的能力，”王学恭说。

The central government aims to have 2.5 per cent of gross domestic product directed to research and development by 2020, up from 2.1 per cent last year. But the jury is still out on whether a state-led system can bring the desired steps forward.

中央政府打算到2020年将国内生产总值的2.5%用于研发，从去年的2.1%出发。但国家主导的系统是否能实现理想中的进步，还有待观察。

Chen Jing, research director at Hong Kong-based Asia Vision Technology, said most of the country’s registered scientific innovations were driven by the government, but the real driving force for technological progress “should be businesses”.

总部位于香港的亚洲视觉技术的研发总监陈经说，大部分国家注册的科学创新是由政府推动的，但技术进步的真正驱动力“应该是商业”。

​Five years ago, there were few Chinese firms making new drugs

五年前，很少有中国企业制造新药

WEN DANYI (ABOVE)

闻丹忆（上图）

“Research and development by business produces real things that matter to daily life” and government-sanctioned research mostly resulted in paperwork, Chen said.

“商业研发生产出与日常生活相关的真的东西，”而政府导向的研究大多只得到文书工作，陈经说。

In the annual Top 100 Global Innovators report published by Thomson Reuters, only one Chinese firm, Huawei, has made it onto the list in the last five years and even then it was only once – in 2014.

在汤森路透发布的年度全球百强创新者报告中，在过去五年中只有一家中国公司，华为，上榜，而且只有一次——在2014年。

Dr Yuan Lanfeng, an active on-line commentator on technology and innovation from the University of Science and Technology of China, said it would take about two generations of scientists for China to narrow its technology gap with the US.

来自中国科学技术大学的活跃的技术与创新网络评论者袁岚峰博士说，中国大约需要两代科学家来达到跟美国并驾齐驱。

“For now, there are only a handful of areas where I would say we are leading global competition, like quantum communications. We are lagging behind the US, Europe or Japan in most fields,” Yuan said.

“目前，只有少数领域我会说我们在领导全球竞争，例如量子通信。在大多数领域，我们是落后或接近于美国、欧洲或日本的，”袁岚峰说。

背景简介：袁岚峰，中国科学技术大学化学博士，中国科学技术大学合肥微尺度物质科学国家实验室副研究员，科技与战略风云学会会长，微博@中科大胡不归 ，知乎@袁岚峰（https://www.zhihu.com/people/yuan-lan-feng-8）。陈经，香港科技大学计算机科学硕士，科技与战略风云学会会员, 微博@风云学会陈经 。

袁岚峰和陈经2016年9月22日接受了《南华早报》记者左茂红的采访，报道《THE GIANT LEAP FROM FACTORY TO WORLD LAB》10月3日发表于《南华早报》A6版（http://www.scmp.com/news/china/economy/article/2024439/chinas-quest-economic-growth-moves-factory-laboratory），风云之声翻译后登出。

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