探祕華大基因的成功密碼

In 2010, Bill Gates visited an unremarkable building in an industrial estate on the outskirts of Shenzhen, China. With row after row of high-tech machinery humming inside, the place could easily be mistaken for an anonymous data warehouse.

2010年，比爾•蓋茨(Bill Gates)參觀了中國深圳郊區一個工業區的一棟尋常建築。裏面一排排的高科技機器在嗡嗡作響，這個地方可能很容易被誤認爲一個無名數據倉庫。

But Mr Gates and Ray Yip, head of the Gates Foundation’s China operation, saw something else that day. As they toured the BGI headquarters, the two men were stunned by the ambition of the scientists working at the biotech company. Inside, more than 150 state of the art genetic sequencing machines were analysing the equivalent of thousands of human genomes a day.

但那天，蓋茨和蓋茨基金會(Gates Foundation)中國項目主任葉雷(Ray Yip)看到了其他的東西。當他們參觀華大基因(BGI)總部時，在這家生物科技公司工作的科學家們的偉大理想讓二人震驚不已。在該公司裏面，150多臺先進基因測序儀正每天對數千個人類基因組進行分析。

The company is working towards a goal of building a huge library based on the DNA of many millions of people. BGI executives see this not as the end-game, but as the springboard for new drug discoveries, advanced genetic research and a transformation of public health policy.

該公司的目標是基於數百萬人的DNA建立一個大規模數據庫。華大基因的高管不認爲這是終極目標，而是新藥開發、高級基因研究和公共健康政策改革的一個跳板。

“We were taken aback,” Mr Yip recalls. “We never thought we would find such an out-of-the-box approach. They are in their own league — open and liberal.”

“我們吃了一驚，”葉雷回憶道，“我們從沒想過我們會發現這麼具有創意的方式。他們獨樹一幟，開放且自由。”

Since the initial visit, Gates Foundation staffers have partnered BGI on various genetic research projects, from sequencing the rice genome to collaborating on the cancer genome project. The Gates Foundation has also joined a long list of groups providing funds to BGI — a list that also included Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm. “Most people only see them as a service provider for DNA analysis,” says a BGI investor. “It is the database they are building that will make them formidable.”

自從初次參觀以來，蓋茨基金會的工作人員一直與華大基因在各種基因組研究項目上展開合作，從大米基因組測序到癌症基因組項目合作。蓋茨基金會還與很多組織一道，向華大基因提供資金，其中還包括硅谷風投企業紅杉資本(Sequoia Capital)。“多數人只是將他們視爲DNA分析服務提供商，”華大基因的一位投資者表示，“實際上，他們正在建立的數據庫將讓他們變得強大可畏。”

BGI’s backers say the company symbolises a new type of Chinese tech company. Chinese companies have long been regarded as copycats — if not outright thieves — when it comes to innovation and intellectual property. Westerners generally discount intellectual property creation in China.

華大基因的投資者表示，該公司代表着中國新型科技公司。長期以來，在創新和知識產權方面，中國企業一直被視爲抄襲者（如果不是徹頭徹尾的偷竊者的話）。西方人普遍看不起中國的知識產權創造。

But BGI, along with other companies in Shenzhen, may soon change that image. Many of BGI’s executives have been partly educated abroad and have little respect for the Chinese establishment or the established way of doing things in the country. Its scientists contribute to international journals and regularly file for patents. It partners with reputable institutions in Europe and the US and has a record that international competitors have come to respect.

然而，華大基因與深圳其他企業一道，可能會很快改變這種形象。華大基因的很多高管在國外受過教育，不那麼畏懼體制或者看重中國的既成經商模式。該公司的科學家爲國際雜誌撰文，並經常申請專利。該公司與歐美有名望的機構合作，其研究成果也開始得到國際競爭對手的尊重。

“We represent a new model of an international Chinese organisation,” says Wang Jun, BGI’s young chief executive, a graduate of Beijing University in artificial intelligence. “China has a legitimate shot to be a lead player on the international stage. Our technology can change the world.”

“我們代表着中國新型國際企業，”華大基因年輕的首席執行官王俊表示，“中國有合理機會成爲世界舞臺上的佼佼者。我們的技術可以改變世界。”王俊畢業於北京大學生命科學系，研究人工智能。

The evolution of BGI is not a straightforward story of Chinese ascendancy, or a victory for China’s model of state capitalism. In fact, BGI has an ambivalent relationship with Beijing and represents a challenge to the Chinese model of education and research.

華大基因的發展並非一個簡單的中國崛起的故事，也不代表着中國國家資本主義模式的成功。實際上，華大基因與北京方面有着矛盾的關係，代表着對中國教育和研究模式的挑戰。

The company, originally known as the Beijing Genomics Institute, was created under the aegis of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. (It was one of the participants in the Human Genome Project.) But its success recently has come despite Beijing as much as because of it.

該公司最初名爲北京華大基因研究中心(Beijing Genomics Institute)，在中國科學院的支持下創建。（該中心是人類基因組計劃(Human Genome Project)的參與者之一。）但對於其近來的成功，來自北京的影響有好有壞。

“You can be brilliant here but you can be more brilliant in the US,” says one staffer who has lived and worked in the US for extensive periods of time. “It’s harder to be creative in the context of the mindset here.”

“在這裏，你可能很聰明，但在美國你可能會變得更聰明，”一位曾在美國生活和工作很長時間的員工表示，“在這裏的思維環境下，很難有創造力。”

That may be an exaggeration, but the structure of China’s education system is seen by many critics as a constraint on innovation. “The system is very incestuous,” says one Beijing-based academic. “It is very political. You have two choices, either to leave China and thrive or to get to the point where you don’t need Beijing’s money.”

這可能有些誇大其詞，但很多批評者認爲中國教育體系的結構會限制創新。“中國體系非常排外，”一位駐北京學者表示，“政治性非常強。你有兩個選擇，要麼離開中國蓬勃發展，要麼達到不需要北京的錢的地步。”

However, the prominence of BGI holds out the hope that China can attract back the best students who often choose to stay abroad after graduating from top US universities.

然而，華大基因的卓越表現給人們帶來希望：中國可能會吸引那些在美國一流大學畢業後通常選擇繼續待在國外的最優秀學生回國。

BGI decided to decamp from Beijing in 2007, choosing to set up its headquarters in Shenzhen, just across the border from Hong Kong. “Shenzhen is as far from Beijing as you can get,” says one BGI investor about the move, which he saw as a move by the company to free itself from political constraints. “You can’t be independent in Beijing.”

2007年，華大基因決定離開北京，選擇在與香港毗鄰的深圳設立總部。“深圳距離北京很遠，”華大基因一位投資者在談到總部搬遷時表示，他認爲此舉是要讓該公司脫離政治控制。“在北京，你不可能獨立。”

Given Shenzhen’s history, this is perhaps not surprising. Shenzhen was designated a “special economic zone” where the first experiments with capitalism took place after Deng Xiaoping began to liberalise the Chinese economy.

鑑於深圳的歷史，這或許並不令人意外。深圳被列爲“經濟特區”，在鄧小平開始在中國實行改革開放後，這裏成爲資本主義的首個實驗區。

Toy companies and running shoe makers built their sprawling factories there, and workers migrated to the new city. Now, many of those factories are shuttered and their operations moved to locations where labour is cheaper, costs lower and pollution is less of a consideration.

玩具企業和跑步鞋製造商將大型工廠設在那裏，工人也紛紛遷移到這個新城市。如今，這些工廠中很多已關閉，它們的業務則遷到勞動力更便宜、成本更低且對污染問題不那麼重視的地區。

Today, Shenzhen is the technology incubator for China. Its longer experience of capitalism and its proximity to Hong Kong have contributed to the speed of the city’s transition. It is home to BYD, the Chinese maker of electric vehicles, Huawei Technologies, the telecoms equipment maker, and Tencent, the internet portal. Local government policy played a big role in the transition. Shenzhen provides grants to promising companies and offers them cheap space, creating an ecosystem which extends to Hong Kong. Shenzhen was originally the home of many tech assembly businesses, so it also had a pool of people familiar with the sector who launched start-ups. Wealthy entrepreneurs then spawned a venture capital industry.

如今，深圳成爲了中國的科技孵化器。深圳時間較長的資本主義經驗以及毗鄰香港的地理位置，加快了深圳轉型的速度。中國電動汽車製造商比亞迪(BYD)、電信設備製造商華爲技術(Huawei Technologies)以及互聯網門戶騰訊(Tencent)的總部都設在這裏。地方政府政策也在這種轉型中扮演了重要的角色。深圳向具備潛力的企業提供撥款，併爲他們提供廉價的辦公場所，同時締造了一個延伸到香港的生態系統。深圳最初是很多科技組裝企業的所在地，因此這裏也聚集了許多熟悉這個行業的人才，他們開辦了很多初創企業。接着，這些富有的企業家又孕育出風投行業。

The city’s stock exchange for smaller, younger businesses — offering a contrast to Shanghai, which prioritised the big state-owned enterprises — allowed venture capitalists to list the companies they invested in, creating a virtuous circle that keeps expanding. Some of the best universities also established outposts in Shenzhen.

針對規模較小且較爲年輕的企業的深圳證交所（與側重大型國有企業的上海證交所形成對比），讓風投資本家可以將他們投資的企業上市，創造一個持續發展的良性循環。一些最優秀的大學還在深圳設立了校區。

Shenzhen attracts the restless and the ambitious, and the mavericks — among them the founders of BGI. Several dropped out of university, while others never had formal higher education because the cultural revolution interrupted their lives. Few are members of the ruling Communist party.

深圳吸引着那些不甘於平淡且雄心勃勃的人，還吸引了那些特立獨行的人，其中就包括華大基因的這些創始人。其中有幾人在上大學時輟學，還有人沒有接受過正規高等教育，因爲“文化大革命”擾亂了他們的生活。幾乎沒有人是黨員。

“They exiled themselves to be far away from the traditional government and scientific funding establishment,” says one investor. “And they have only been forgiven [by the establishment] because they make China look good.”

“他們自我放逐，遠離了傳統的政府和科研資金體制，”一位投資者表示，“（當局）原諒了他們，僅僅是因爲他們讓中國面子上有光。”

The walls of BGI’s austere building are covered with photos of everything from cloned pigs to Wang Jian, the company’s co-founder, on Mount Everest. Mr Wang spent years abroad, including as a senior research fellow at the University of Washington in Seattle. Another co-founder, Yang Huanming, also studied abroad, receiving his PhD at the University of Copenhagen.

在華大基因簡單樸素的辦公樓裏，牆上懸掛着各種照片，從克隆豬到登上珠峯的該公司聯合創始人汪建。汪建在國外生活多年，包括在西雅圖的華盛頓大學(University of Washington)擔任高級研究員。另一位創始人楊煥明也曾在國外留學，他在哥本哈根大學(University of Copenhagen)獲得博士學位。

China has a number of advantages in the field of genomics. DNA sequencing is more about computer power and data mining than it is about breakthroughs in laboratories, investors say. Given its population of 1.35bn people, the potential database in China is larger than anywhere else. The more extensive the database a company has, the stronger the competitive advantage. It is also cheaper to gather and analyse information. Moreover, BGI has about 2,000 members of staff with PhDs, perhaps the largest concentration of any company in China, and they are employed at a fraction of what that assemblage of brains would cost in the US.

在基因組領域，中國具備很多優勢。投資者表示，DNA測序更多在於電腦計算能力和數據挖掘，而不是實驗室突破。鑑於中國擁有13.5億人口，中國的潛在數據庫超過全球任何其他國家。一家公司擁有的數據庫越大，其競爭優勢也就越大，信息收集和分析的成本也更低。另外，華大基因擁有大約2000名博士學位員工，大概是中國企業中最多的，而將這麼多人才聚集到一起，華大基因需要付出的薪資只是美國企業的幾分之一。

Yet there are also potential issues that make outsiders uneasy, especially the lack of strong privacy protection, intellectual property rights and strict protocols regarding clinical trials. But BGI and its backers insist that it complies with best practice in the industry, although some note that the lack of IP protection means that ideas can be implemented more quickly.

然而，還有一些潛在的問題讓外部人士感到不安，特別是缺乏強大的隱私保護、知識產權以及與臨牀實驗有關的嚴格協議。但華大基因及其支持者堅稱，該公司遵循着該行業的最佳慣例，儘管一些人指出，缺乏知識產權保護意味着創意可以更快速地實施。

While BGI’s roots are in China, it is seeking to become more international. In 2013, it acquired Complete Genomics, a DNA sequencing company based in Mountain View, California for almost $118m. That deal was consummated in the face of a belated counter offer from Illumina, a rival of Complete Genomics currently worth about $28bn. It also overcame political opposition, marking the first time a Chinese company successfully acquired a publicly traded US company.

儘管華大基因的根基在中國，但該公司正努力變得更國際化。2013年，該公司以近1.18億美元的價格收購總部位於加州山景城的DNA測序公司Complete Genomics。在Complete Genomics競爭對手Illumina（目前市值爲280億美元左右）遲遲才發出競購要約後，這筆交易圓滿落幕。華大基因還克服了政治阻力，成爲首家成功收購美國上市公司的中國企業。

BGI was the single biggest customer for Illumina, accounting for as much as 40 per cent of its DNA sequencing machine orders, for equipment that cost up to $500,000 apiece. That may change with the purchase of Complete Genomics as BGI plans to introduce a new sequencing machine.

華大基因是Illumina最大單一客戶，佔其DNA測序儀訂單的40%，每臺設備售價高達50萬美元。在收購Complete Genomics後，這可能會發生變化，因爲華大基因計劃引入新型基因測序儀。

Other challenges lie ahead for BGI. It is an unusual company, with one foot in the world of pure research and another seeking to develop commercial applications for its work. Such structures were once more common in the US technology industry, where researchers at Bell Labs and Xerox Parc were given funding and time to pursue ambitious research projects. In recent years, US investors have been less willing to subsidise large research projects that may not pay off.

華大基因未來還面臨着其他挑戰。它是一家不同尋常的公司，一隻腳踏入純研究領域，另一隻腳則希望邁入研究成果的商業應用開發。在美國科技行業，這種結構曾經更爲常見，貝爾實驗室(Bell Labs)和施樂帕克研究中心(Xerox Parc)的研究人員就曾獲得資金和時間去展開雄心勃勃的研究項目。最近幾年，美國投資者則不那麼願意爲那些可能不會盈利的大型研究項目提供補貼。

Mr Wang says he understands this tension. “If we are too commercial, we lose sight of the future,” he says. “But if we are only thinking of the future, that isn’t suitable either.” That dual mandate means that it is not easy to set priorities. They must be visionaries and business strategists at the same time, balancing the demands of basic research with more commercial undertakings such as developing diagnostic kits and tests.

汪建表示，他理解這種緊張關係。“如果我們過於商業化，我們會看不到未來，”他表示，“但如果我們只考慮未來，也不合適。”這種雙重任務意味着，確定哪個優先並不容易。他們必須既有夢想，同時又要成爲商業戰略家，在基礎研究的要求和更多的商業行爲之間實現平衡，例如開發診斷設備和測試。