The Inauguration Ceremony of Jiangbei New Area (Pilot FTZ) Regional Medical Ethics Review Committee was held on 27 September, which was attended by Gao Guhe, Deputy Director of the Administrative Committee of Jiangbei New Area, Wang Xiaofang, Director of Science and Education Division of Jiangsu Health Commission, Wang Qian, Director of Science and Education Division of Nanjing Health Commission, as well as Lu Xiaojun, Director of Jiangbei New Area Bureau for Heath and Civil Affairs, and was presided over by Ge Feixiang, Deputy Director of Jiangbei New Area Bureau for Heath and Civil Affairs. 

Upon approval by the State Council in 2015, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area was China’s 13^th and Jiangsu’s one and only state-level new area. China (Jiangsu) Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area was set up in August 2019, within the jurisdiction of Jiangbei New Area. The “dual merits” of being both a state-level new area and a pilot FTZ have been well leveraged to open up a new historical chapter characterized by intrepid entrepreneurship.

In the recent years, Jiangbei New Area has been spearheading the technological innovation with a commitment of building itself into a complex of Two Towns and One Center (a gene town, a chip town and a new finance center). A complete life and health industrial chain supporting the full-cycle medical and health service from APIs production, development of new drugs to application of medical services facilitated by health big-data technology has been put in place, covering the entire area of Jiangbei New Area. At the moment, the area is home to over 900 health or medical companies, with total industrial value surpassing 100 billion yuan. As many of the research programs in the medical and health sector require tests on humans, it is imperative to follow ethic principles and implement rigorous ethic reviews so that patients, subjects of tests, researchers and the programs can be protected. Jiangbei New Area’s effort in the preparation of the establishment of a regional medical ethics review committee went a long way to facilitate the coordinated development of administration of medical ethics with innovation-driven development of medical and pharmaceutical R&D under the new circumstances. Following the guidance of the provincial and municipal health authorities, the first regional medical ethics review committee in Jiangsu gained approval by the National Health Commission and was officially set up in the Pilot FTZ Nanjing Area on 17 August.

In the preparation phase, Jiangbei New Area acted on the principle of “selecting the top professionals across the board” to satisfy the composition of the review committee, and finalized with 15 experts and scholars from a variety of sectors including clinical medicine, biomedicine, research methodology, ethics, law and sociology to be the committee members after multiple rounds of investigation and consultation. Gao Guhe addressed the inauguration ceremony, Wang Xiaofang together with Lu Xiaojun unveiled the nameplate for Nanjing Jiangbei New Area (Pilot FTZ) Regional Medical Ethics Review Committee, and Wang Qian conferred letters of appointment on the 15 committee members on the scene.   

Gao Guhe stressed that being located in the new area with “dual merits”, Nanjing Jiangbei New Area (Pilot FTZ) Regional Medical Ethics Review Committee needs to grasp the opportunity and meet the challenges head on, enhance cooperation with universities, research institutes, hospitals and biomedicine hi-tech companies, implement the “people first” philosophy, speed up improving its regulations, institutions, and governing mechanisms, strengthen supervision on ethics, contribute to the coordinated development and integration of government services with the medical and health industry, and serve as the guardian for people’s life and health in the New Area (Pilot FTZ).

After the inauguration, Ji Guozhong, Party Secretary of No.2 Hospital Affiliated to Nanjing Medical University and Wang Xiuqin, Director for International Cooperation of Jiangsu People’s Hospital and the first Chairperson of Nanjing Jiangbei New Area (Pilot FTZ) Regional Medical Ethics Review Committee addressed the audience with theme lectures on “Basic Knowledge of Medical Ethics” and “Regional Ethics Committee—Present and Future”. The Regional Medical Ethics Review Committee in the New Area is committed to safeguarding the safety and interests of the subjects and adopting more forward-looking approaches in line with scientific laws in its experimental plans. It is expected to make important contributions to supporting the R&D of biomedicine programs by exploring new paths for speeding up the approval of these programs.