VZCZCXRO5840
RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC
DE RUEHGZ #0056/01 0310715
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 310715Z JAN 08
FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6840
INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000056 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/CM 
HHS PASS TO FIC/NIH 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: TBIO CH
SUBJECT: Guangdong Strengthens Infectious Disease Research Capacity 
- Is It Enough? 
 
REF: 07 GUANGZHOU 1266 
 
(U) This document is sensitive but unclassified.  Please protect 
accordingly. 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Chinese central and Guangdong provincial 
governments have invested significant resources to expand the 
province's infectious disease research capacity; this includes two 
new infectious disease research institutes.   Obstacles remain to 
the development of an effective research infrastructure, including 
limited funds, lack of coordinated strategy, and inadequate 
facilities for handling highly-infectious specimens.     End 
summary. 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
Building and Expanding Infrastructure of New Institutes 
--------------------------------------------- ---------- 
 
¶2. (U) China has learned numerous lessons from the 2003 SARS 
outbreaks in the south, few more important than the importance of 
developing research infrastructure for diagnostics, vaccines, and 
therapies to deal with emerging infectious diseases, especially 
respiratory diseases.  As a result, two new research institutes have 
been established: the Guangzhou Institute of Respiratory Diseases 
(GIRD) and the Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine and Health (GIBH). 
 
 
¶3. (U) GIRD was first established in the 1970's as part of the First 
Hospital of Guangzhou Medical College, which receives the majority 
of its funding from the provincial and municipal governments. 
Although led by Dr. ZHONG Nanshan, the well known respiratory 
disease clinician, the institute has but a very small research 
program - only 4 principle investigators and approximately 30 staff. 
  The Institute focuses on the clinical aspects of viral respiratory 
diseases, particularly influenza, avian influenza, and SARS.   GIRD 
also researches the side effects of using anti-viral drugs and 
corticosteroids to treat viral respiratory infections.  It has a 
large collection of specimens and a valuable patient database. 
 
¶4. (U) After the 2003 SARS outbreak, GIRD's role in emerging 
respiratory diseases research became more prominent.  To further 
expand capacity, the First Hospital of the Medical College is 
constructing a brand new 32-story facility, in which GIRD will 
occupy 11 stories.  It will be able to establish a new clinical 
trial unit capable of phase 1 and 2 studies.   Construction of the 
new facility is being funded by the municipal and provincial 
governments at an estimated 240 million RMB (USD 34.3 million). 
This expansion will make conducting additional human clinical 
research of new vaccines and drugs for respiratory diseases possible 
in South China; at this point, such clinical studies are still not 
very common. 
 
¶5. (U) The second institute, GIBH, was founded in 2005 in response 
to the 2003 SARS outbreak.  It was established jointly by the 
Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), and Guangdong provincial and 
Guangzhou municipal governments, with a combined initial investment 
of 300 million RMB (USD 42.9 million) (reftel).  Within two years of 
its establishment, more than 20 principal investigators, mostly from 
overseas, and over 400 technical staff were recruited by the 
institute.  GIBH's is also constructing new facilities.  Its new 
main campus, on the outskirts of Guangzhou, will house comprehensive 
research and development programs, from early discovery to 
preclinical developments of vaccines and drugs.  A primate center 
for conducting preclinical research on infectious diseases is 
included in the plan.   Thus far, GIBH has attracted international 
interest from both the U.S. and Europe for its potential as a major 
collaborator in South China. 
 
¶6. (U) GIBH's initial focus was to find ways to turn basic research 
into new diagnostics, vaccines, and drugs to combat emerging 
infectious diseases and HIV infection.  Currently, GIBH researches 
on infectious diseases include the search for new vaccines for HIV, 
influenza, and malaria, of new treatments for herpes simplex virus 
(HSV) and influenza virus infection, and the development of rapid, 
simple diagnostic technology for viral pathogens.  The technology 
will include a rapid test for AI infections based on viral gene 
sequences. 
 
¶7. (U) Better research infrastructure is also being developed at 
Guangdong's leading university, Sun Yat-sen (Zhongshan) University. 
Sun Yat-sen University receives more central government research 
funding for life sciences than any other university in China. 
Funded by the "863" and "973" Projects of the Ministry of Science 
and Technology (MOST) and the Chinese Natural Science Foundation, 
the University School of Life Sciences has a biosafety level 3 (BSL 
 
GUANGZHOU 00000056  002 OF 002 
 
 
3) facility - it's a joint research laboratory with a local biotech. 
 Both the School of Life Sciences and School of Medicine have 
established programs to study host immunity in relation to 
infectious diseases using genomic technologies.   Researchers at the 
schools are developing new vaccines and promoting the discovery of 
new antibiotics from marine microbes as they work to combat emerging 
infectious diseases. 
 
---------------------------------- 
Challenges to Research Development 
---------------------------------- 
 
¶8. (U) Despite significant investment in research infrastructure, 
the amount of funding - administered by the Ministry of Science and 
Technology (MOST) - may not be enough. The Institutes under the 
Ministry of Health (MOH) also receive operational funding from MOH 
but not enough to operate without additional outside funds. 
Although Guangdong is the richest province in China by total GDP, 
the provincial government's support of basic and applied biomedical 
research for infectious diseases is considered by many researchers 
here as insufficient.  Moreover, the central government in Beijing 
allocates proportionally more resources to poorer provinces, even 
though Guangdong is considered a major 'hotbed' for emerging 
infectious diseases.   Therefore, MOH institutes in Guangdong 
normally fall through the cracks of funding from both the central 
and provincial governments.   Small amounts of funding are now 
becoming available from the private sector, such as local biotech 
and pharmaceutical companies, which often collaborate with the 
research institutions.  However, funds from non-government 
organizations, such as from private foundations, to support public 
health research initiatives in south China remain almost 
non-existent. 
 
¶9. (SBU) In addition, infectious disease research in Guangdong 
suffers from the lack of a clear strategy at both the national and 
provincial levels.  There is no Chinese counterpart to the U.S. 
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease which can 
effectively chart a concrete research strategy, prioritize research 
programs and resource allocation, and coordinate research efforts in 
the infectious diseases area.  Chinese researchers and top 
government officials, including Dr. CHEN Zhu (the Chinese Minister 
of Health who in his last visit to the U.S. in 2007 was the 
President of CAS), have previously voiced the need for such a 
strategy and coordination. 
 
¶10. (U) Applied research, which is necessary to develop basic 
research into vaccines, tests and treatment, is not as highly 
respected in Chinese academia as the basic research.  China adapts 
and heavily relies on scores of science citation index (SCI) and 
impact factor (IF) of publications to evaluate researchers' 
achievements.   Normally, results of applied life science research 
are published in journals with low IF and low SCI. 
 
¶11. (U) Guangdong also lacks proper biosafety facilities for the 
research of highly infectious specimens.   The current biosafety 
level (BSL) 2 and 3 facilities in Guangdong are limited and 
insufficient to support research needs.  Many provincial infectious 
disease hospitals and research institutions, including Guangdong 
CDC, GIBH, and GIRD, do not have adequate laboratory facilities for 
handling highly infectious specimens.  In addition, with very few 
exceptions, there is a general lack of knowledge of how to construct 
or maintain a proper BSL facility within a research setting. 
 
------------------------- 
Addressing the Challenges 
------------------------- 
 
¶12. (U) In order to confront these challenges, several prominent 
south China researchers have been promoting the consolidation and 
sharing of research resources between institutions and provinces. 
Last year, GIRD and GIBH formed a joint national key laboratory for 
respiratory diseases by combining the research strengths of each 
institute.  Pending final inspection, this joint initiative is 
expected to receive funding of up to 15 million RMB (USD 2.1 
million) from MOST under the auspices of the national "973" Project 
for funding research of respiratory diseases.  In addition, 
Guangdong researchers are looking for new international research 
collaborations and funding opportunities. 
 
GOLDBERG