Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone: Breaking through the Wall with Institutional Innovation to Create a New Chapter in Industrial Development

After being labeled as "carbon neutral", a pair of beach pants doubled in price and became a popular item on the Amazon platform. An innovative drug has been approved, becoming the first pilot variety for segmented production of antibody conjugated drugs (ADC) biological products in China, accelerating the pace of market launch. A pharmaceutical company is accelerating its innovation transformation and international development, with a leading number of research and development pipelines, becoming the only Chinese pharmaceutical company to enter the top ten in the world... The vivid practices grown from this "experimental field" in Jiangsu are powerful witnesses to its creation of a high-energy open platform.

Since the establishment of Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone, we have adhered to institutional innovation as the core, continuously deepened innovative and integrated reform exploration, and accumulated more than 550 institutional innovation achievements, of which 202 have been replicated and promoted in Jiangsu Province. In August last year, the State Council approved the "China (Jiangsu) Pilot Free Trade Zone Biomedical Industry Chain Open Innovation Development Plan", and Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone became the only pilot free trade zone in the country to receive this initiative. Since the approval of the plan, Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone has promoted the implementation of pilot tasks based on the actual needs of business entities. Currently, the implementation rate of measures in the plan exceeds 90%.

Breakthrough from "Experimental Field" to "High Yield Field"

Institutional innovation is the core task of the pilot free trade zone. Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone adheres to a problem oriented approach and carries out pioneering explorations in multiple key areas, transforming policies into tangible dividends for enterprises.

In the field of green trade, Jiangsu Qingtian Industrial Internet Co., Ltd., relying on the advantages of the pilot free trade zone, explored and built a "carbon neutral identification service model for export textiles" by building a "green sea" service platform.

Li Li, the head of the carbon asset business department of the company, introduced that the platform first collects data on raw material composition, energy consumption, transportation methods, etc. for carbon footprint accounting around the supply, production, transportation, and operation processes of textiles and clothing, and introduces international third-party organizations to conduct verification and certification to ensure the credibility of the data; Secondly, guide enterprises to reduce emissions by selecting low-carbon suppliers, using green electricity, improving production processes, or offsetting carbon emissions through projects such as carbon sequestration forests; Finally, for certified products, affix the "carbon neutrality" logo and independent QR code for overseas buyers to view the carbon emission data of the entire product lifecycle and the specific path to achieve carbon neutrality.

The beach pants produced by Hongdou Group have a carbon footprint of 2.68 kilograms, offsetting the carbon emissions of 11020 pieces of clothing through 18 acres of carbon sequestration forests. After being labeled as' carbon neutral ', these more than 10000 beach pants obtained the' climate friendly 'label and top push on the Amazon platform, and were quickly sold out after being put on the shelves, "said Li Li, pointing to the beach pants in the company's exhibition area. This is thanks to the support provided by the Nanjing area in terms of cross-border data compliance: platforms such as "Jinling Data Trade" provide guarantees for carbon data security and compliance reporting, and enterprises ensure the security of sensitive information such as production processes through blockchain certification and third-party authentication mechanisms.

In the field of cross-border data and trade facilitation, the institutional innovation of Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone has also achieved breakthroughs. Jiangsu is the first in the country to explore the negative list management model for data export from pilot free trade zones, establish a joint conference system for data export management, and form a system of "negative list management+graded classification guidance+multi department collaborative supervision". The first national level blockchain digital bill of lading system has been implemented in the Suzhou area, significantly reducing the circulation time of bills of lading. The railway transportation document financial service in Lianyungang area has been approved as a national pilot, and the first case of financial service docking with the United Nations Convention on the Transfer of Goods Documents has been implemented nationwide. It is not difficult to see from these cases that the institutional innovation of Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone is not simply a combination of policies, but an integrated breakthrough formed around the real needs of enterprises.

The transition from 'a tree' to 'a forest'

The real economy is the cornerstone for the development of pilot free trade zones. Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone focuses on cultivating key industries such as biomedicine, new generation information technology, nano new materials, and high-end equipment manufacturing. It has a forward-looking layout for key tracks of new quality productivity such as cell and gene technology, third-generation semiconductors, and general artificial intelligence, creating a group of distinctive and competitive advantageous industrial clusters, and forming a distinctive and complementary industrial development echelon.

Especially since the approval of the plan last year, the development of the biopharmaceutical industry in Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone has made positive progress. By 2025, the output value of biopharmaceuticals in Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone will reach 285 billion yuan, accounting for 60.1% of the province's total; 13 innovative drugs of Class 1, accounting for 76.5% of the province's total; The down payment for overseas transactions of innovative drug management lines exceeded 3.4 billion US dollars, accounting for nearly 50% of the country's total.

The parks located in Nanjing, Suzhou, and Lianyungang districts have all been selected as one of the top 50 national biopharmaceutical industrial parks. Among them, the Nanjing area focuses on the characteristic direction of gene and cell therapy, gathering over 1300 enterprises. Reindeer Medical has been approved as the first domestically developed CAR-T product with full process independent production; The industrial scale of Suzhou area has reached 175 billion yuan, and biopharmaceuticals and high-end medical devices have been selected as national advanced manufacturing clusters. The competitiveness of biopharmaceutical industry talents and cooperation dimensions ranks first in the country; The construction of "Zhonghua Pharmaceutical Port" in Lianyungang area has achieved remarkable results, with a total of 30 Class 1 innovative drugs approved for market, ranking first among prefecture level cities in China in terms of quantity.

The acceleration of leading enterprises is the best footnote to industrial upgrading. With the support of the innovation policy for the entire biopharmaceutical industry chain in the Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone, Jiangsu Hengrui Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. in the Lianyungang area has made positive progress in its innovation transformation and international development.

In the first half of 2026, the company invested 4.605 billion yuan in research and development, and the revenue from innovative drugs steadily increased to 8.809 billion yuan, accounting for 63% of the company's drug sales revenue. Innovative drugs have become the main source of product sales revenue, and the achievements of innovation transformation are continuing to be realized. The research and development of innovative drugs has formed a virtuous cycle of one batch being launched, one batch being clinical, and one batch being developed, "Lu Yun, Vice President of Hengrui Pharmaceutical, told reporters. In May of this year, the company reached a global strategic partnership with Bristol Myers Squibb covering 13 early innovation projects, with a potential total transaction value of up to 15.2 billion US dollars. This cooperation marks the continuous upgrading of Hengrui's global cooperation model, extending from traditional asset licensing to long-term strategic cooperation of "Co Co Co" for joint discovery, joint development, and potential joint commercialization.

Suzhou Shengdia Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hengrui Pharmaceutical located in the Suzhou area, has also achieved rapid development with policy support. The company's independently developed injectable Ruikang Trastuzumab (Avida) has become a landmark case of policy dividends being transformed into industrial innovation momentum. This drug is not only the first antibody conjugated drug (ADC) approved for market in Jiangsu Province, but also the first segmented production pilot ADC variety approved for market in China.

The implementation of policies such as the pilot program for segmented production of biological products has pressed the 'acceleration key' for enterprise innovation and product launch, "Gu Yifeng, General Manager of Suzhou Shengdia Biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd., told reporters. The ADC drug process is complex, involving production processes such as naked antibody, linker payload, raw material, and formulation. Before the implementation of the policy, all four parts need to be produced at the same site, but Suzhou Shengdia does not have a production line connecting the sub payload. If a new production line is built, it will not only require huge investment but also face challenges in environmental protection, which will delay innovation. After the implementation of the policy, the enterprise adopted a collaborative model within the group, and handed over the production of the connector payload part to Hengrui Pharmaceutical's Lianyungang factory, while the naked antibody, original solution, and formulation were completed in Suzhou Shengdia. This not only optimizes resource allocation, but also shortens the time limit for review and approval. Now, the variety has been successfully approved for market launch.

In order to improve the research and development efficiency of biopharmaceutical enterprises, the Suzhou Biomedical Industry Comprehensive Service Center continues to connect the "last mile" of institutional innovation to empower enterprise development. The person in charge of the comprehensive service center stated that there are over 2000 biopharmaceutical enterprises in Suzhou Industrial Park, with different product types, enterprise sizes, and development stages, and a high degree of personalized demand. The comprehensive service center always focuses on the needs of the entire biopharmaceutical industry chain and product lifecycle, integrates approval and service resources scattered across various functional departments, and provides public welfare, convenient, and precise services for enterprises. The service content covers risk assessment of special goods import and export, joint supervision of special goods, professional title evaluation, technical platform consulting, and other matters. Enterprises only need to "enter one door" to solve various service needs of multiple business lines.

Seven years of free trade have stirred up the courage for reform and innovation. The reform of the pilot free trade zone is like a journey from a "nursery" to a "forest": at first, a few new seedlings break through the soil, and then they grow into forests, eventually becoming a magnificent sight. The open innovation and development plan for the entire biopharmaceutical industry chain, which includes more than 550 institutional innovation achievements and an implementation rate of over 90%, is both an achievement and a beginning. Jiangsu Pilot Free Trade Zone is writing a new era of reform and opening up with innovation as the pen and industry as the ink