The Ministry of Science and Technology of China released its 2017 List of Chinese Unicorn Enterprises and Trend Study Report on Mar 23. Innovent Biologics, an SIP-based pharmaceutical company is on the list, the only one in Suzhou and one of the seven in Jiangsu province.

"Unicorn" was chosen in 2013 by American venture capitalist Aileen Lee to represent the statistical rarity of less-than-10-year-old startups valued at over US$1 billion. The Chinese evaluation basically follows the same criteria.

Founded in SIP's Suzhou Biomedicine Industrial Park in August 2011, Innovent Biologics has seen a fast development, with an R&D team of over 500 high-caliber talents and 13 kinds of new drugs for tumors, ocular fundus diseases, autoimmune diseases and cardiovascular diseases in its lineup. In addition, the company has partaken in a series of national medical research programs. All of these achievements helped it take a place on the list.