Transformations of China (1): Industrial Biotechnology

Dr. C. C. Lin

Biotechnology Consultant

14 June 2010

As a biotechnologist trained in the US, I made many trips to mainland China every year since 1985 initially representing a major international pharmaceutical/biotechnology company and subsequently as biotechnology consultant as well as a Visiting Biotechnology Professor of the Jiangnan University (江南大学), Wuxi, Jiangsu Province (江苏省无锡市), China. I personally witnessed the dramatic transformations of China during the last 25 years.

Historically, the first comprehensive agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery encyclopedia (in the world) of Chinese traditional biotechnology: “Essential Skills for the Common People”《齊民要術》was written by Jia Sixie (贾思勰) during the late years of the Northern Wei Dynasty (北魏, 386-534AD). It documented the practical processes of making many traditional foods, alcoholic beverages, sauces and flavors etc. It was arguably the most advanced biotechnology in the world for many centuries. Many of those are fermentation (醱酵) products made with certain friendly microorganisms (as subsequently explained by modern biotechnology) but without defining the process scientifically. It is still useful as a practical “cook book” for the layperson at this time. However, there were no scientific studies of the processes any where in the world until the invention of the optical microscope for the observation of the microorganisms in Europe by Antonie van Leeuwenhoek during the 17th Century and Louis Pasteur defined the scientific principle of fermentation in the 19th Century.

While traditional classical biotechnology has been practiced in China for more than a thousand years, modern biotechnology came to China rather late in the 20th Century. In 1985, when I first visited factories in China making fermentation biotechnology products, the production equipment was rather old and obsolete by modern standards as well as the production processes were poorly controlled. Consequently, the resulting fermentation products did not meet the modern GMP (Good Manufacturing Practice) Standard.

In the late 80s, many of the major fermentation factories in China started making progress in the improvement of their production equipment (replaced by some suitable imported equipment) and processes (through better education and training of personnel in biotechnology). By the mid-to late 90s, increasing number of major fermentation factories successfully obtained ISO certifications and met international GMP Standard. Many of the leading factories making fermentation products such as antibiotics (抗生素), vitamins, etc. were making acceptable products for the world market at low cost with increasing profitability using modern state-of-the-art production system and good quality control system with adequately trained and skilled personnel. Later on, some of the progressive biotechnology companies in China started their own Research & Development program for production process improvements and production of new products with higher profitability. Today, many leading western pharmaceutical companies have either setup their own production factories or have signed up contract production and/or services with acceptable Chinese companies for their pharmaceutical products in China. It is quite remarkable to me that their know-how, management and operations in industrial biotechnology improved so dramatically in the past two decades contributing to the major up turn in the economic advancement of the country in recent years.

-- To Be Continued --