It was raining lightly in the morning of December 24, 2019, when the kick-off meeting of the Northern Anhui Medical Research Collaborative Innovation Alliance was held in Bengbu, Anhui Province.

The presidents, secretaries and heads of science and education divisions from the First and Second Affiliated Hospitals of Bengbu Medical College, the Fuyang People's Hospital, the Huaibei People's Hospital, Suzhou Municipal Hospital of Anhui Province, Bozhou People's Hospital, some pharmaceutical companies, Taihe County People's Hospital and other hospitals in Northern Anhui attended the meeting; and Panacro, as a representative of clinical trial partner companies also participated in this meeting.

Mr Gao, secretary of the party committee of Bengbu Medical College delivered an opening speech; Dr. Yang Zhiwei from Institute of Laboratory Animal Sciences, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, and Zhou Huan, Executive Deputy Director of the Clinical Trial Institute of the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College, as well as the presidents and secretaries of all participating hospitals made enthusiastic, active and practical discussions and sharing.

President Wang Hongju of the First Affiliated Hospital of Bengbu Medical College presided over the meeting.

During the meeting, the constitution of the alliance was drawn up, namely, the alliance is a voluntary, non-profit, regional social organization formed by research institutes, medical institutions and enterprises; with research institutes and medical bodies as the foundation, institutional and mechanism innovation as the core, the alliance will draw upon strengths from each other and cooperate to carry out basic medical research on major diseases and rare diseases; carry out drug clinical trials and take the lead in building the country's clinical study innovation system; apply for/undertake national and local scientific research fund projects; carry out training and academic exchanges in clinical medicine and basic medical research; and facilitate the clinical application and transformation of research results.

While conducting basic research and improving clinical diagnosis and treatment skills, the Alliance adheres to the Opinions on Encouraging the Implementation of Clinical Trials by the National Health Commission and the Opinions on Deepening the Review and Approval System to Encourage Innovation on Drug and Medical Device by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee, supports members to conduct various forms of clinical studies and provide services such as clinical trial institution building, trial design, GCP verification, subject recruitment and biostatistics, aiming to rapidly improve the overall clinical study level in Northern Anhui, create a new clinical research system for the sustainable development of medicine in Northern Anhui, and better serve medical science and technology innovation, thus ultimately contributing to the development of healthy Anhui and healthy China as a whole.