Guangzhou municipal government issued a notice under its 15th Five-Year
marine-economy plan to accelerate development of the marine pharmaceuticals and
bioproducts sector. Measures include building a South China Sea bio-gene bank
and data repository, raising deep-sea bioresource utilization, and promoting
AI-driven marine drug discovery. The plan targets core extraction technologies
for fish oil, fish collagen, chitosan and seaweed polysaccharides, development
of carbohydrate- and peptide-based drugs, and original marine therapeutics for
oncology and cardiovascular disease. It also prioritizes marine-derived
hemostatic and repair biomaterials, strengthening marine traditional Chinese
medicines (eg, seahorse, seaweed), and breakthroughs in extraction/purification,
enzyme engineering and fermentation. The plan calls for productizing seabed mud
and deep seawater inputs and developing marine novel-food, health-food and
cosmetic raw materials using modern biotech.
