U.S.-China Young Innovators and Entrepreneurs Gather to Share Experiences

On July 13, 2017, U.S.-China Health Summit hosted the Networking & Experience Sharing event of the Young Health Innovators Forum (YHIF) 2017 at Canopy City in Boston. Three past YHIF winners shared their start-up experiences with this year’s YHIF participants and other healthcare entrepreneurs. Dr. Jing Ma, President of U.S.-China Health Summit, introduced the “Healthy China 2030” blueprint and the upcoming 7th annual Summit in both Boston (Sept. 15) and Beijing (Sept. 23-24).

This event is a warm-up for YHIF2017 Boston competition, a healthcare business competition for young entrepreneurs. When the audience asked how a start-up differentiates itself from others, Dr. Ailis Tweed-Kent, CEO at Cocoon Biotech Inc. (the winner of YHIF2015, a biotech start-up from Tufts University focusing on drug-delivery platform) said the most important point is to be very clear about people’s needs and how your technology can apply.

“You should ask yourself what problems you want to solve, and always be passionate about what you do,” Dr. Tweed-Kent said.

Past participants are sharing their YHIF stories

When asked about healthcare markets outside the U.S., Dr. Alexander Lin, co-founder of BrainSpec (the finalist of YHIF2016, a comprehensive Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy software platform from the Brigham & Women’s Hospital) said that the Chinese healthcare market is incredible, especially the large number of patients and the variety of disease types. The key is how to understand and address these unmet needs better and find the most effective solutions. Dr. Lin mentioned that participating in YHIF2016 gave him a great opportunity to engage a large Chinese audience and explore the Chinese market.

Dr. Tweed-Kent also described China as an exciting market for biotech companies. She said the reason why Cocoon Biotech participated in YHIF was that the majority of the company’s raw material came from China, so they wanted to better connect with that country.

“In China, people are always looking for good projects, and the nice part of working in NGO is that when you are doing something, many people come to help,” said Hui Liu, North America Marketing Director of Rare Genomic Institute (the winner of YHIF2015, an international non-profit that helps people with rare genetic defects).

As past YHIF participants, the three speakers also gave this year’s participants suggestions about how to prepare for the competition.

Afterwards, Dr. Jing Ma, President of U.S.-China Health Summit, introduced the “Healthy China 2030”, which is central to the Chinese Government’s agenda for health and development. The major goals of “Healthy China 2030” are to promote healthy lifestyles, optimize health services, improve health security, build a healthy environment and develop health industries. That will bring tremendous opportunities to the domestic healthcare market. The 7th U.S.-China Health Summit in both Boston (Sept. 15 at the Harvard Medical School Martin Conference Center) and Beijing (Sept. 23-24 at Peking Union Medical College) will focus on the megatrend in health and healthcare under this circumstance.