Research at State key laboratory spawns entrepreneurial effort

I started doing my master's degree in medicine in the State Key Laboratory of Quality Research in Chinese Medicine at the University of Macau in 2016. My research direction is to extract materials from traditional Chinese medicine to make wound dressings.

My supervisor, myself and two other students from the university started a medicine company in 2017 that developed a wound-dressing product for diabetic foot complications. It's called Golden Wound Dressing.

It is based on the findings of our research in the university lab. We integrate the healing properties of traditional Chinese medicine and cutting-edge technology into other materials.

Diabetic foot complications are one of the most serious complications of diabetes. Chronic ulcers can affect the walking of patients and are the second major cause of amputation in China. The dressing helps heal the festering skin.

Like me, many young people in Macao try to start their own businesses nowadays, with help from many supportive policies. Our startup program received some funding from an entrepreneurship program at the university and also free instructions on running a startup.

Our company, based in Macao, focuses on research. We are now cooperating with hospitals on the Chinese mainland to do clinical trials because there is a larger population there. In the future, we are going to find manufacturers in mainland cities, including Zhuhai and Zhongshan in Guangdong province.

To enlarge the business and attract investments, we moved the company to the Macao Young Entrepreneur Incubator this year, where there are many opportunities for us to communicate with other young entrepreneurs from European countries and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Macao is like a window connecting China and the world, and it carries Chinese culture, including the culture of traditional Chinese medicine. I am very interested in developing TCM in a modern way, so Macao is a good place for me.

I hope our wound-dressing product can enter the market soon so that patients can use it. Macao is also a good platform for us to brand it to the world.

A recent partner is a company from Brazil that uses Amazonian plants to produce healthcare products. It hopes to cooperate with us to find a way to combine plants used in traditional Chinese medicine with local plants in Brazil to make a medical product that is popular around the world.

Zhang Zhe spoke with Zhang Yi.