Merck, the world’s leading technology company，joins hands with Plug and Play to explore China’s innovation ecosystem
On July 18, the world’s leading technology company Merck and Plug and Play China jointly announced their strategic cooperation. Ms. Sophie Sun, Managing Director of Merck Innovation Hub China and Vice President of Merck Strategy and Transformation China , along with Mr. Peter Xu, Managing Partner and CEO of Plug and Play China attended the signing ceremony.
Merck is a global leading technology company focusing on three major fields of medical health, life sciences and high-performance materials. China is one of Merck’s important strategic countries in the world, and has become a global innovation center of Merck. Merck China Innovation Center actively searches, incubates and invests in emerging technologies to expand cross-business innovation opportunities.
Plug and Play Health&Wellness Innovation Platform was established in Silicon Valley in 2015. So far, it has opened offices in Cleveland (the U.S.), Munich (Germany) and Shanghai (China), and has cooperated with world-renowned pharmaceutical companies such as Roche, Sanofi and Amgen to build an Open Innovation Platform globally. In the 13 batches that have been launched, the platform has already accelerated over 300 of the world’s leading technology innovation startups.
▎Integrating Industrial Chain and Jointly Creating Innovation Platform
Based on its investments and accelerating experience in Global Digital Technology, New Materials, Health&Wellness and other fields, Plug and Play China will link Merck with high-quality technology startups in the fields of Medical Health, High Performance Materials, Life Sciences and Digital Technology at home and abroad.
Based in four innovation centers of Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chongqing, Plug and Play China is able to better drive the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, Yangtze River Delta Region, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area and the Yangtze River Economic Zone, and get into the Chinese domestic market to help Merck meet its innovation needs generated in its development in China.
Meanwhile, the two sides will focus on creating a joint innovation platform with the help of Merck’s rich industry resources and professional backgrounds in related fields in order to provide investment, acceleration, entrepreneurial guidance, project pilot resources for Chinese technology startups, promoting the growth of startups and speeding up the realization of cutting-edge technology in Medical Health, High Performance Materials and Life Sciences Industries as well as creating an active innovation ecosystem.
Ms. Sun Zhengjie, Managing Director of Merck China Innovation Center and Vice President of Merck China Strategy and Transition, said:
“Merck has been actively exploring China’s innovation ecosystem and shall enhance the exchange of experience in different industries, different regions, different growth stages and different organizational forms of projects, startup incubation and other aspects after establishing strategic partnerships with Plug and Play China. With Merck’s deep accumulation and technological advantages in related fields, both of us will accelerate the process from initial creation to industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.
I’m looking forward to see Plug and Play and Merck work together on innovative acceleration, open innovation and cross-border acceleration. We will integrate our innovative eco-industrial chains and jointly create an innovation platform.”
Mr. Xu Jieping, Managing Partner and CEO of Plug and Play China, expressed:
“Plug and Play China is honored to establish cooperation with Merck China. This is the result of the resonance between Plug and Play China’s Innovation vision and Merck’s China development strategy.”
We will cooperate in many dimensions, for example, “Industry Focus”, “Startup Search”, and “Innovation Ecosystem Construction”. Through Plug and Play China platform, we will link partner resources and enable Merck to innovate. We will not only promote Merck’s business development in China through innovation, but also help Merck China better interpret the innovation connotation of brand.”
▎Focusing on four major areas, Plug and Play China Health&Wellness First Batch is about to launch.
Since this vertical entry into China in 2018, Plug and Play China Health&Wellness Team has carried out a number of industry innovation activities in Shanghai, Xiong’an, Wuxi and many other cities with partners like CR Medical, Amgen and Roche, attracting over 300 high-quality technology startups to join Plug and Play China Health&Wellness Open Innovation Platform.
In August this year, the first batch of Plug and Play China’s Health&Wellness will also be launched. We will search for excellent technology and solutions around the four focus areas of Chronic Disease Management, In Vitro Diagnosis, Mobile Health, Artificial Intelligence/Big Data/Blockchain and promote cooperation between startups and corporates.
In the mean time, partners of this batch shall consist of the upstream and downstream links in the Health&Wellness industry including medical corporates, medical equipment corporates, medical institutions corporates, insurance corporates and funds/venture capital. The first batch will also build communication channels for these corporates, search for the possibility of cooperation and innovation, and explore the potentials of industry chain linkage.
The Selection Day of this batch will be held on August 28. Through four months of acceleration, the acceleration results will be presented on the Expo Day in December.
