The “Fudan Star” Entrepreneurship Competition, initiated by the PE/VC Alumni Association of Fudan University Alumni Association in Shanghai, has served national strategies for over a decade. Leveraging Fudan’s disciplinary advantages and integrating global alumni resources, the competition is committed to fostering an innovative atmosphere, promoting industry-academia-research integration, and building the Fudan innovation ecosystem.

Over eleven years, the competition has collected more than 1,100 alumni entrepreneurship projects. The competition selects outstanding projects for investment, providing mentorship and precise resource matching, and has become an important platform for Fudan faculty, students, and alumni to pursue innovation and entrepreneurship, obtain guidance, and access capital.

The 12th Competition Features Comprehensive Upgrades:

• Co-building the “Fudan Innovation Project Repository,” partnering with Fudan Innovation Fund and Fudan Asset Management Company to establish a precise matching platform for alumni capital and projects.
• Focusing on the “Capital + Industry + Technology” iron triangle ecosystem, creating a service platform covering the full lifecycle of technology commercialization to help Fudan innovation enterprises achieve excellence.

Project Profile

In 2025, the global biopharmaceutical industry welcomes a new wave of technological revolution. We revisited Academician Zhu Yizhun, winner of the 8th Competition Grand Championship, Associate Vice President of Macau University of Science and Technology, and Founding Dean of the Faculty of Chinese Medicine, to gain deeper insights into InnoDrug Pharmaceutical (Guangdong) Co., Ltd., which he founded, and to provide new perspectives for the next round of China’s innovative drug development. Zhu Yizhun is a leading figure in China’s new drug R&D field. He has led his team from Fudan’s laboratories to the international stage, breaking industry constraints with “originality” and writing the Chinese story of innovative drugs with “dedication.” By founding InnoDrug Pharmaceutical (Guangdong) Co., Ltd., he has achieved remarkable results in drug R&D for major cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and metabolic diseases. In recent years, the company’s position in the industry has continued to rise, becoming a rising star in China’s new drug development field.

01 Fudan Memories: From Laboratory to National Mission

In 2005, Zhu Yizhun was recruited from the National University of Singapore to serve as Dean of Fudan’s School of Pharmacy through a global recruitment initiative. At that time, the national “Major New Drug Development” project was launched, and he led his team to be selected as one of the first eight national new drug R&D bases, receiving 80 million yuan in research funding support. “We seized the opportunities of the times and shouldered the nation’s expectations.” During his ten years at Fudan, he led multiple innovative drug R&D projects including leonurine and propargylcysteine, achieving technology transfers valued at 150 million and 101 million yuan respectively, and publishing multiple groundbreaking papers internationally.

“I never thought about entrepreneurship, but the times pushed me forward.” Zhu Yizhun’s entrepreneurial journey began with technology commercialization. In 2021, Zhu Yizhun’s team won the championship in the Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan region of the 10th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition with their original new drug project, which led to an invitation to participate in the “Fudan Star” Entrepreneurship Competition. “The initial motivation for participating was simple—to let more people see the possibilities of China’s original drugs.” He candidly admitted that he had no intention of starting a business, but setbacks in technology transfer “forced” him to enter the market: in 2019, when a partner company halted clinical trials due to the pandemic and funding chain issues, he resolutely sold his house to raise 30 million yuan, established InnoDrug Pharmaceutical, and decided to see the original research through to the end.

“Developing innovative drugs is a capital-intensive endeavor, but it is also a Chinese responsibility.” Zhu Yizhun candidly stated that China has yet to produce a completely independently originated global new drug, and this sense of mission to achieve this “breakthrough from zero” made him willing to stake his personal assets to advance new drugs from laboratory to clinical trials. Currently, one of InnoDrug Pharmaceutical’s core innovative drugs has entered Phase II clinical trials, another core innovative drug is about to begin clinical research, and several innovative drugs targeting vascular inflammation, injury, and aging are poised for launch.

02 Originality: Breaking the Shackles of “Follow-on Innovation”

Through years of effort, InnoDrug Pharmaceutical founded by Zhu Yizhun has achieved remarkable results in drug R&D for major cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, and metabolic diseases. The company currently has 1 Phase II clinical program, 1 Phase I clinical program, 2 IND-stage programs, and 11 preclinical pipelines, with core focus on unmet clinical needs such as atherosclerosis and fatty liver disease. Its fatty liver drug efficacy data surpasses that of Resmetirom, the first FDA-approved drug in the U.S. (clinical remission rate improved to 40%), and its atherosclerosis inhibitor has been listed as a key achievement of the national “13th Five-Year Plan” major project. Additionally, his team was the first to reveal the “inflammation-injury-aging” trilogy mechanism of atherosclerosis, which was praised by the internationally prestigious journal Cardiovascular Research as “ushering in a new era of vascular disease” and “revealing the emperor’s new clothes”—the only achievement from China to receive such acclaim to date! These new drug projects have not only attracted widespread attention domestically but have also gained consistent international recognition.

“China’s new drug R&D doesn’t lack ‘imitation’; what’s lacking is ‘from zero to one.'” When discussing InnoDrug Pharmaceutical’s core competitiveness, Zhu Yizhun candidly stated it lies in its strong original R&D capabilities and deep cultivation of original mechanisms. From Fudan’s School of Pharmacy to Macau University of Science and Technology, Zhu Yizhun has always closely integrated “basic research-translational application.” InnoDrug Pharmaceutical emphasizes starting from basic research, thoroughly exploring disease mechanisms, discovering new drug targets, and on this basis developing new drugs with independent intellectual property rights. He led his team to extract active ingredients from traditional Chinese medicine monomers (such as leonurine and garlic extract cysteine), break through druggability bottlenecks through structural modification, and “buy out” patents from universities to achieve industrialization, successfully resolving the poor stability issues of traditional Chinese medicine and forming an R&D paradigm that combines “Chinese and Western medicine.” This full-chain innovation model from basic to applied research gives InnoDrug Pharmaceutical unique advantages in the new drug development field.

Furthermore, the company emphasizes technology transfer and application, ensuring that developed new drugs can truly be implemented and benefit patients. As a clinical physician (who still maintains a half-day specialty clinic weekly), Zhu Yizhun has a profound understanding of patients’ actual needs, which ensures that the company always maintains a clinical value orientation during the R&D process, avoiding the disconnect between R&D results and market demand.

03 Future Vision: IPO and Globalization Dual Engines

In 2025, InnoDrug Pharmaceutical officially launched preparations for a Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO, planning to raise funds to advance global multi-center clinical trials with the goal of becoming the first globally marketed new drug company completely developed by a Chinese team. The company plans to establish regional R&D centers in Guangzhou and Singapore, deploying localized pipelines targeting Southeast Asia’s high-incidence metabolic diseases. Simultaneously, negotiations are underway with European and American pharmaceutical companies regarding overseas rights for core drugs, with expected transaction amounts reaching hundreds of millions of dollars. Zhu Yizhun also revealed that the company will focus on cardiovascular, cerebrovascular, metabolic diseases, and autoimmune disease areas in the future, advancing global clinical trials of multiple first-in-class drugs. Additionally, he plans to establish the “Fudan Innovation Drug Fund” to specifically support biomedical projects that stand out in entrepreneurship competitions.

04 Message to Fudan: Innovation Within Reach

Zhu Yizhun has deep affection for Fudan University and hopes that Fudan can achieve greater breakthroughs in innovation and cultivate more talents with innovative capabilities and practical spirit. This year marks Fudan University’s 120th anniversary, and Zhu Yizhun expressed his profound blessings and expectations. He reflected: “Ten years at Fudan taught me to conduct research with critical thinking. This place is not just a laboratory, but the birthplace of innovative sparks.” He hopes Fudan can achieve greater breakthroughs in innovation and cultivate more talents with innovative capabilities and practical spirit. Meanwhile, he encourages current students to be trailblazers who dare to be first, with less “literature following” and more “disruptive hypotheses,” actively participating in innovation and entrepreneurship activities with the Fudan spirit, courageously pursuing their dreams, and contributing to societal development and progress.

From Fudan School of Pharmacy’s laboratories to the countdown to a Hong Kong Stock Exchange IPO, Zhu Yizhun has led his team to complete in 15 years a journey no Chinese pharmaceutical scientist has traveled before. His story confirms: the path of original research drugs is arduous, yet it will ultimately illuminate the future of industrial upgrading. He has also proven through action: innovation is not a slogan, but the courage to face challenges and the persistence of ten years of dedicated effort. In 2025, let us continue to be guided by the stars and illuminated by innovation, together writing the entrepreneurial legend that belongs to Fudan.