For me, that is amazing. So how do I know?

Late in 2018 I signed up to the London Marathon 2019 as a member of the Dementia Revolution team. My wife tells me that it always takes a ‘The’ to motivate me, as in: The Virgin Money London Marathon, or getting fit enough to ski The Russi Run above Andermatt (or indeed establishing The Sino-UK Fund). It has to be a big ‘The’ to get me fired up, apparently. I have never run a marathon before, and I have not done any sort of running in almost 40 years so family and friends were a little surprised by my commitment. My children joined in the ruse by giving me some quite extraordinary “Adidas Ultra Boost” running shoes for Christmas so I signed on to the Strava running app on Boxing Day and took my new kit for a test run. Strava keeps a record of your routes, speed and hill climb distance – click the logo for more info. On that first run (about 2 miles round the village very, very slowly!) I was utterly demoralised by how hard it was. Even on the flat my jog was little more than a shuffle, and the slightest incline brought me close to a standstill.

This is the point at which I need YOUR support. This is HARD! I confess that I found myself believing that I might have taken on a ‘The’ that was beyond me.

Link to my fundraising page

But the sun rose again and today I learned something: Strava has just told me that I have run 26.2 miles. Marathon distance!

OK so the 26.2 miles is the cumulative total distance I have run in my new shoes. Since 26th December. But … there is suddenly no part of me that says: “I can’t do this”. If it takes me 10 days or so to complete the London Marathon starting on 28th April then the timekeepers, crowd, finish line and even my long suffering, faithful family supporters will have gone home by the time I complete it. But still I now know with absolute certainty that I CAN run a marathon. I can see the fact right there in front of me on the Strava app.

Believing that I can’t do something is one of life’s worst nightmares for me. It holds me back so much. Proving to myself that I can is sometimes just a matter of perspective. For me, I now know that I can complete the marathon. Training over the next few months just needs to help me cut down the breaks a bit so that I get to the finish line in time to pick up my finisher’s medal :-)

So what else have I learned so far?

• Well after my second run I implemented an advanced warm-down routine – i.e. collapse immediately in front of the telly with a cup of tea. Unfortunately I can tell you with absolute certainty that this method is not a good idea. Something close to rigor mortis sets in within about 10 minutes. I was stiff as a board. It turns out that stretching, water, protein and a bit of chocolate work a whole lot better.
• Also, I had to update my training program compared to the last time I ran any distance. There are training programs that anyone can access that get you to the finish line. Enough people have attempted marathons in recent years for online apps and training programs to be developed that you simply have to adhere to and you will make it. When I was 18, a bunch of my fellow rugby team members and I decided that a 25 mile Sponsored Walk for Charity that our school had arranged would be far too boring to walk. So, three weeks before the day, we decided to train so that we could run it instead, which we then did (the 17th mile was hard, as I recall, and I also remember that we arrived at all the refreshment stops and finish line before the officials had even got there - whereas in April I aspire to get there before they have left). That gruelling 25 mile run was NEARLY marathon length and is my one, solitary claim to long distance running. But it is a lonely marker and more than double the length of any other run I have ever done so I don’t think that a three week preparation plan would work quite so well this time! The full four months is needed. (Here is a link to a very simple 16 week Training Plan, if you are interested –> Link)
• Some people get some benefit from comparing their performance with other runners. The Strava app has all sorts of gadgets and applications to help a user follow fellow runners and be followed by others, compare routes with others, compete with others, see ratings of one’s performance against others and much more besides. But none of this interests me in the slightest so I have turned all these features off. For me, motivation comes from within – the challenges I set for myself.

I am going to try to keep a record of the experience over the next four months – hopefully including details of what it feels like to run and complete the London Marathon. However I need to get your support along the way. I have set myself the task of raising £2,500 for the extraordinary cause that is The Dementia Revolution (another ‘The’). I have just put in £500 myself and my business will match that. But I need help from you to get to my target please. Judging by previous blog posts I only need £5 or more from you to hit the target though. Can you do that, please? Click on the link below and see what you think – and email me when/if you do contribute so that I can update you on progress.

Link to my fundraising page

Finally I am pleased to see that my faithful running companion – our 2 year-old dog – is sound asleep on her blanket as I write. She already gets excited when I get my new running shoes out as she knows that we are off for a run. And it apparently tires her a little too!

Thanks for your support. Please take it from me that what ever it is that you believe you can’t do … you are almost certainly wrong.  Find some way to prove to yourself that you can do it and you will find the strength to put in the hard yards. After that … you can start looking out for the final straight, with finish line in sight.

Note: All comments are curated. All marketing links and similar junk will be deleted

All I want for Christmas is …

Two-year old running companion

When in China, many government-sponsored science parks vie for your attention and investment.

In my first China trip of 2014 I visited the new science and innovation park in Benxi, just South of Shenyang in the North East of China and only around 100 miles north of Dandong/Sinuiju on the North Korean border, where we sought to engage with the local cluster. Luckily we brought along two products that gained immediate buy-in from the local technologists and we also had significant support from the dynamic Mayor Mr. Hongbin GAO. As a result, we had an extremely successful trip and expect to raise significant funding for development of our European products in Benxi. Is this where I should base all my China business?

Well having come back this week-end from my second China trip of the year – a gruelling twelve-and-a half thousand mile round trip to four locations in 5 days – I would also add Wuhan and Qingdao to the ‘most valuable partner’ list of target locations for UK firms.

From the top:
Benxi, Qingdao and Wuhan

So how do you decide where to locate your business, and how do you go about developing the necessary relationships to make it work – in a country where relationships matter more than pretty-much anything else? The two are closely linked.

The first step is easy to define, but harder to execute: first, be successful in China! Turning up in China and pitching for multi-million pound funding without first showing commitment to the commercialisation of IP in China is unlikely to produce a positive result, or an engaged relationship. Too many Western firms have taken Chinese money and benefits in the past only to depart soon afterwards (without generating anything of lasting value in the local economy) for Chinese investors to put big money up before you demonstrate commitment. So … start small. Demonstrate commitment. Create some short term successes – confirmed partnerships supported by revenue, confirmed collaborations with the local industry, hospitals or public health, or evident progress towards manufacturing of your product – and you will be amazed by how fast the rapport is developed, and how much support you receive.

Many UK firms will be disappointed by this need for upfront commitment (what do you expect when seeking multi-million pound non-dilutive funding from China?) and will be even more disappointed by the next essential: make sure you have China-ready as well as China-relevant products.

• ‘China-relevant’ is easy: this includes any product that addresses issues specific to the Chinese market, ideally referenced by inclusion in the current 5 Year Plan.  As China experiences increased incidence of all the typical ‘Western’ diseases like cancer or diabetes, there is seldom any difficulty in confirming European products as China-relevant.
• ‘China-ready’ is harder but basically means ‘later-stage products’ – focus first on therapies already in the clinic (or devices at least at confirmed prototype stage) if you want Chinese commitment in the form of funding. Once success is established with later-stage products you MIGHT be able to partner earlier-stage technologies. But don’t rely on it. I have seen too many brilliant pre-clinical projects rejected by Chinese investors in favour of super-generics or similar to think that discovery-stage assets fit well with Chinese investors.

Go it alone or spend valuable time finding a partner?

Developing effective Chinese relationships requires the help of a trusted local partner. It has taken nearly three years for us to find such a partner and establish the necessary bonds of trust, but we are now able to connect through our partner with the top Chinese political influencers, mayors, government officials and business leaders on a regular basis. Trusted partners have given us access to Regional Directors and it is through these relationships that the long term regional partnerships have been cemented. You could presumably do this without a local partner but it would take far more time and you would certainly need well connected, dedicated, Mandarin-speaking staff members on your team. For the vast majority of UK entities, working through a trusted partner is the way to go.

As it stands I think we can now confirm Qingdao, Wuhan and Benxi as our top Chinese locations and our connections and partnerships are well established in each of them. At last I can begin to concentrate my China trips on these three. Other centres will continue to compete of course – we will always have interests in Beijing, China Medical City will continue to court us (and has real value despite its location), different conference locations will continue to make themselves known and we will continue to develop our engagement with Shanghai and in particular with the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone (http://en.shftz.gov.cn/).

Regional demand is not uniform however: Like investors anywhere, each Chinese science park has its own priority list of target investments. Not all China-ready projects are attractive to all Chinese science parks. Your local partner – or Dynasty contact if you have one – will tell you who wants what. Then all you have to do is develop a Chinese-centric pitch (with slides in Mandarin PLEASE) and you are good to go.

So what else happened this trip?

I don’t have space to go in to details but many China-classic events featured in my schedule this time:

• The formulaic and formal audience with a local Director (see pic below)
• The signing ceremony, with attendant press (see pic and link)
• The TV interview with a wholly Chinese-speaking camera crew (see pic and video)
• Being ‘announced’ at the start of a conference meeting
• Helter-skelter, breath taking taxi rides (not for the faint hearted – have crashed once so far)
• Bewildering searches for specific office or restaurant locations
• Endemic, rapid staff turnover
• Silent, un-responsive and apparently neutral audiences (which can actually belie a keen interest in what you are saying!)
• Absolute frustrations with slow, intermittent Gmail. And no Twitter or Facebook – Ok the latter is an advantage, as far as I am concerned

New experiences: What is it like to be a patient in China?

Hospital registration and my digital records reference card

I also gained the opportunity to experience Chinese healthcare first hand. Luckily my only ailment was a broken tooth – sustained during a delicious lunch in one of the many restaurants found in the shadow of the Tsingtao beer factory. I was then reminded that all healthcare services in China are delivered through the hospital network, even basic dentistry.

So my long-suffering local interpreter and I headed off to the vast Qingdao Chengyang People’s Hospital (every major City has a People’s Hospital), checked with the hospital doctors in Outpatients that they were prepared to treat a foreigner, registered me with the healthcare system in the Foyer in exchange for some cash, and then headed up to the dental unit on the third floor.

‘Can’t be done’ was the young dentist’s first reaction on being presented with a dislodged ‘implant’ but, after some discussion, he was persuaded to do his best. Thirty minutes later, with my front tooth safely re-fixed but with the dentist’s warning that it was ‘Only temporary because the technology is different’ ringing in my ears, I was back to normal.

All I had to do then was to part with more cash at the front desk and return the completed paperwork to the dentist.

All in all the visit took about 90 minutes, including Registration. But how much did it cost me for this highly efficient service, you ask? Well the Registration was a massive 4.5 Yuan and the dental work cost 20 Yuan. In total that is about £2:50 in English money. Now that is an excellent service!

So I think we know Where. Final thoughts on How?

Well if you insist on turning up in China to pitch a discovery-stage asset, seeking Chinese investment that needs to be paid in to a UK bank account, perhaps even in the form of a long-term equity investment, reliant on a presentation written wholly in English and with no previous commitment to commercialising IP in China then PLEASE … stay at home and save your money.

If, on the other hand, you want to make either a long term commitment to China yourself or to partner with us to ‘borrow’ our own commitment and relationships, then please give me a call. An offer: Honestly, I am delighted to help you either way. Pro bono. Though I sometimes feel like I am playing the role of concerned potential father-in-law checking that a suitor’s intentions are honourable, I really want your marriage to work too – because it is essential to my business that we develop this channel to its fullest potential.

In my experience in China, many locations vie for your attention but each offers different opportunities. If your business deserves that attention, if you find a partner you trust and a location that suits your technology …  then the commercial opportunities are limitless.

Click here for About Us or here to contact Simon

Footnote: 1> I hope to confirm completion of successful fundraising for Dynasty projects from all three locations within the next 6 weeks. Exciting progress. Fingers crossed. 2> See this link for access to China’s 12th 5 Year Plan (Healthcare development)

 

Here are some links to our top three sites, and my own comments on each:

Wuhan Biolake: http://en.biolake.org/ The Wuhan story is another of those remarkable tales of Chinese growth. Less than 10years ago the science park area was farmland and lakes. Now the first 15 square kilometre development area bristles with young, innovative companies plus a few large players (like Pfizer and Wuxi Apptec, Bayer and Thermo Fisher). This has created a powerful cluster, enhanced each year by the extraordinary 3551 Grant event. Now in its 7^th year Wuhan has invested millions of dollars each year in companies prepared to bring IP and/or senior staff to Wuhan. (See http://www.dynastybio.com/china-beckons/ for details).

Qingdao: http://english.shandongbusiness.gov.cn/public/area/qingdao/ My engagement with Qingdao has been galvanised by connection with Mr Chen, the driving force behind its development. Mr Chen’s vision is to combine science with creativity in the region – a thesis that I have advocated elsewhere for some time. Others will think of Qingdao as the location of the sailing contests in the Olympics, or the home town of Tsingtao beer (no one seems quite clear as to why the beer and the City don’t quite have the same spelling but it is apparently something to do with translation in to German). But for me this is the location where innovation and artistry meet. And med devices find a welcome home here. http://lanmu.qtv.com.cn/system/2014/03/29/011271502.shtml

Benxi: Benxi is probably the young upstart of the three (though Qingdao is new on the scene too). Up until recently the technology development in the former heavy industry region of Liaoning Province was concentrated around Shenyang. However, following a change of leadership, the technology spotlight has now settled on nearby Benxi. Some still remember the region, sometimes without much fondness, as the home of state-owned, lumbering iron and steel companies. This past probably helps explain why Benxi seeks the manufacturing end of the life sciences sector as its new tenants but there is some appetite for a broad mix of commercialise-able healthcare businesses here.

Signing ceremony: Qingdao National High-tech Industrial Development Zone

The Qingdao hospital: faultless service

Formal meeting with the Qingdao director.

Benxi Mayor Mr GAO with the Vice-Mayor and Jun REN CEO of NSB, inspects the new NSB office – nearing completion.
Future Dynasty Centre?

Meeting the Wuhan leadership: Executive Vice Director Mr YAN

Meeting the Qingdao Hospital director Prof. Sean Qu and team

China is a heady drug for anyone involved in biotech, cleantech or IT, representing a massive potential market, a source of significant funding – both in terms of grant and investment – and offering the potential for rapid product development. It is also a frightening, challenging, bureaucratic, unknown business environment with alien culture and, at first sight, inpenetrable language.

This series of blogs will chart my progress or otherwise in China. It won’t quite be an Asian version of ‘A year in Provence’, the famous 1985 autobiographical novel by Peter Mayle, because family commitments prevent me from actually moving out to Wuhan but this series will, I hope, give you a flavour of the journey and perhaps even provide a few useful hints along the way. So what else is it not? Well, despite the title, it is not I hope about an accelerating chase towards an unachievable perfect high. I hope not, that is, but time will tell. Also, it is not about the ‘why’ but is more about the ‘how’.

So first of all let’s recap on the place itself. China in 2012:

• Where is it?
• Who lives there?
• How do I get started?

China today: Where is it?

This sounds like a daft question. But go look at the map and the link below and you will probably have a surprise or two. Check out the North East boundary with Russia through to the South Western boundary with India and Pakistan. Singapore, off the map south of Thailand but firmly in Asia to a western eye, is actually some 5 hours flight time away from Beijing, in the North East – a similar flight time for London to Boston. North Korea, South Korea and Japan are apparently minor limbs projected from the North Eastern shores. (see here for a wider picture of where China fits: http://ow.ly/9ZhcL)

China today: Who lives there?

The population is massive, as we all know: the current population is estimated at about 1.3bn to 1.4bn, just ahead of neighbours India. But these Chinese multitudes live in a country almost exactly the same size as the USA (slightly bigger if one includes Mongolia, but slightly smaller if not) and around half the size of Russia. The USA and Russia have respective populations of around 300m and 140m. To any biotech CEO, 1.3bn is a lot of patients. Without the famous one-child policy implemented in 1979 the population would probably have been some 300m or 400m more.

But the population spread is far from even with the majority living on the East and Coastal regions (apparently because of the historic value of access to water). Over 50% of China’s total population lives in rural areas, there are more men than women, and the population is both ageing and succumbing to ‘western’ diseases (heart disease etc). Inadequate heathcare access and the prevalence of a Chinese phenotype make application of Western medicines more difficult than one might expect. Meanwhile continued reliance on smoking (perhaps linking to the TB issue) and growing obesity and heart disease problems make reform of the healthcare system an ongoing priority.

China today: So how do I get started?

Well this is where my story really begins. I have taken on an interim CEO role for a company for whom I was raising funds. The CEO was forced by illness to step down long term and Yours Truly was asked to step up. Initial relationships and the prospect of product development for a number of diagnostics was already in the pipeline when my involvement began. But my immediate task was simple: to see if the relationships were with Chinese parties whom we could trust, and to assess what form of entity to establish in China (don’t forget: I am not revisiting the ‘why’ here).

We can ponder trust in a moment or two, but first: what about structure?

These days there are a number of possible forms of business structure in China that one can consider. The primary option, however, is either to use a joint venture or to create a Chinese subsidiary (a JV or a WOFE – Wholly Owned Foreign Enterprise). I am pondering this choice now, with the help of various UK-based Chinese intermediaries and China-based lawyers, and it seems to boil down to:

• if you plan to exploit local grant funding as your primary funding benefit then work through a joint venture, attracting grants because of the involvement of your local partner
• if you seek to raise significant equity investment from Chinese sources, then set up a company via the WOFE approach

After the reams of advise that I have been given on the topic this seems unnaturally simplistic. But it is how I see it right now, meaning that we will set up a WOFE (which takes about three months and involves a greater degree of form filling, side letter preparation, proposals to local officials and provision of signatures than one could ever imagine possible). This also throws up an interesting test: whilst we might arrogantly assume that the global language of business is English one can expect to find that all contracts are in Chinese, perhaps with English translation alongside.

Simplified diagram of how to register your new subsidiary

How do you feel about signing such documents? If you get a translation, how do you know that the translation is accurate? Furthermore Anglo Saxon contracts tend to define as many details as possible, addressing potential consequences and buttoning down all material items. Chinese contracts appear benign by comparison, incorporating positive statements but few facts.

So far we have progressed without issue. We have verified translations. We have details inserted in contracts where we wanted them. And we have the promise of investment money flowing in to accounts where and when it should. All I have to do now … is sign.

Which of course brings us to: the issue of trust.

If one goes ahead with setup of a new operation in China as a JV, a WOFE or in some other format then one is going to have local partners. These folks will be your eyes and ears on the ground, at least until you can appoint local staff. One hears many stories of an apparently trustworthy local partner suddenly revealing their true colours and disappearing with the cash/IP/products/customers etc (fill in whichever Key Asset relates to your situation). Of course many such stories are also recounted in the UK about setting up in the US in ‘the old days’. The fact of the matter is that one needs to mitigate the risks:

- IP and technology: our technology involves the analysis of large data sets but, with a bit of work, we can do this remote from the data collection. That means we can keep the technology in head office in the UK. We will need to disguise the analysis that is undertaken in China to hamper reverse engineering of the product. And we need to remember that IP is typically lost in the head of a departing employee rather than in the form of a blueprint in the pocket of an outside thief.

- Motive: we are all out to make a profit. Some seek to do so without consideration for ethics. In our case we are lucky that our Chinese partner is currently engaging in a major US deal and needs to establish exceptional credibility through its honest actions. We know that losing ‘face’ in China is important in the business culture and our partner has much to lose if they slip up on our relationship.

- relationship per se: if it feels bad but sounds good well … find another partner. In the end I have to put a considerable value on interpersonal relations. We have taken time to visit our partner and to get them over to London. We have spoken to reference sources AND listened to what they have told us. References matter (particularly if you pick the references) but I still trust my own instinct after years of team building. What else can one do?

The answer of course is: drink the wine – the clear, fiery, 50% proof distilled variety. There will be many toasts to come, I am told. More headaches. But for now I step boldly forward, pen ready. Optimistic. Very comfortable with our chosen partner. And trusting. (Phew! It is a long time since I have been so hyped in business).

China here I come.