Several medical companies in Waigaoqiao Area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, including Wuxi AppTec, BeiGene, Genscript Biotech and Sinopharm, made the serial Future Healthcare VB100 lists that were recently released by online healthcare information provider Vcbeat.top, VB100, and VCBeat Research.

Waigaoqiao, a key biomedicine industry cluster in Shanghai, has fully used the opening-up advantages of Shanghai FTZ to provide holistic services for biomedicine companies by establishing a slew of industrial carriers, including the Shanghai Waigaoqiao International Medical Devices Exhibition and Trading Center (i-SPACE), the Biomedicine Sharing Laboratory (U-LAB) and the Innovation Center of Fudan Science and Technology Park.

For example, i-SPACE spans 2,250 square meters and offers the ability for companies that participate in the China International Import Expo to hold exhibitions.

It not only displays more than 100 categories of signature products, but also offers holistic services including trainings, matchmakings and declarations, allowing products that have not entered the domestic market to seek opportunities in advance.

In addition, i-SPACE has cooperated with the Shanghai Medical Devices Testing Research Institute to enhance the safety and effectiveness of medical devices, laying a good foundation for companies to enhance medical device design, research and development.

According to the latest statistics, Waigaoqiao is home to 886 biomedicine and medical devices companies with a total industrial scale of 221.8 billion yuan ($32.69 billion), accounting for more than one third of Shanghai's total.

During the first half of this year, Waigaoqiao's imports of medicine and medical devices both accounted for more than 10 percent of the country's total import volume in the same product categories.