62-Year-Old "CEO with a Dominating Aura" Spends 100 Hours a Week on Drug Development and Holds a Fortune Worth Hundreds of Billions | Exclusive Interview by 36Kr

Text by | Hu Xiangyun

Edited by | Hai Ruojing

Zhu Yi is 62 years old this year and works seven days a week. Since 2014, when Bolin Pharma established a subsidiary in Seattle, the United States, and entered the new drug R & D field, he has maintained this work rhythm.

Starting at 8 a.m., he intensively listens to team reports because he says his "mind is clearest" during this time. After 4 p.m., he allows himself to be "a little less sharp" and arranges more flexible tasks, such as meeting friends or handling external company affairs.

From 9 p.m. to 12 a.m. every night, Zhu Yi must read the daily project reports summarized by the clinical team without fail. As he spoke, he directly opened Feishu and showed those densely filled tables. Most of these tables were designed by Zhu Yi himself. By consistently reviewing them, he has developed a high level of sensitivity. Once there is something wrong with new data, he "can spot it at a glance."

As Bolin Pharma's market value exceeded 100 billion yuan, Zhu Yi was titled the "richest man on the STAR Market" by the outside world. However, he occasionally regrets that if he had worked as hard before 2014, Bolin Pharma might be even more successful today.

Zhu Yi was born in the 1960s and grew up in a factory in Neijiang, Sichuan. During his school days, he was always the top student in his class. He was inspired by the stories of Einstein and received an education emphasizing the importance of industry in strengthening the country. His dream was to become a scientist. However, due to limited objective conditions at that time, after graduating from Fudan University with a major in biophysics, he was unable to pursue this dream. He worked as a university teacher and later ventured into the real - estate business, earning his first fortune.

His idea was simple: after making money in the business world, he would return to scientific research.

In 1996, Zhu Yi founded Baili Pharmaceutical, the predecessor of Bolin Pharma, mainly engaged in the generic drug business. Its flagship product, Ribavirin Granules "Xinbolin", was once the best - selling product in its category in China. In this way, Bolin Pharma began to use the funds accumulated from the generic drug business to support the R & D of innovative drugs.

However, this is not the typical development path for Chinese innovative drug companies. A team of overseas - returnee doctors from multinational pharmaceutical companies and a novel drug target used to be the more favored startup stories in the market. In the years when the capital market was not optimistic, Zhu Yi became his own "venture capitalist."

For a long time, Bolin Pharma remained low - key, existing like a "hidden master" in the domestic pharmaceutical circle. It wasn't until the end of 2023 that the company licensed its independently developed innovative oncology drug BL - B01D1 (EGFR×HER3 bispecific ADC) to Bristol - Myers Squibb (BMS), an American pharmaceutical company, for an upfront payment of $800 million and a total deal value of $8.4 billion, while retaining the rights for future co - development and commercialization in the United States.

In the past two years, the licensing of domestic innovative drugs for overseas development has been booming. The total licensing value in the first half of this year alone exceeded $60 billion. Although the upfront payment for BL - B01D1 has been surpassed by later entrants, the total single - drug out - licensing (BD) value record remains unbroken.

By now, the so - called "circuitous route to save the country" that Zhu Yi mentioned, which is to do scientific research after making money, has finally been recognized by the outside world.

After being listed for just over two years, Bolin Pharma has become the third innovative drug company on the A - share market with a market value exceeding 100 billion yuan. In mid - July, the company was just approved for a private placement of nearly 4 billion yuan.

Zhu Yi is vigilant, even "averse" to the title of the "new richest man on the STAR Market." In a recent interview at an industry forum, he bluntly said that the word "richest man" doesn't always bring good luck. He cares more about whether Bolin Pharma is still steadily and solidly conducting R & D, which is the "thing he is most proud of."

He said that his new goal now is to lead Bolin Pharma to "become a multinational pharmaceutical company from China." This has been the goal of many domestic innovative drug companies, but after the past few years of the cold winter and reshuffle in the pharmaceutical industry, few companies publicly express this goal anymore.

Zhu Yi is different. He is still confident, determined, and full of fighting spirit. During the interview, he repeatedly emphasized to us Bolin Pharma's goal of becoming a multinational pharmaceutical company (MNC), and "the time limit is five years."

Dialogue (edited):

The interview was conducted at the First Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macao Greater Bay Area Future Health Industry Conference. Thanks to "Tongxieyi", the organizer of the conference, for their assistance with this article.

Doing BD: Dare to "go all in", but not blindly bet

36Kr: From the huge BD deal to the current goal of becoming an MNC. You've left an impression on the outside world that once you've made up your mind, you'll negotiate according to your own standards; otherwise, you won't do it.

Zhu Yi: Basically, yes.

36Kr: Most companies and managers find it difficult to do this. More often, they compromise within an acceptable range. From your personal perspective, how did you withstand the pressure?

Zhu Yi: Let me take the BL - B01D1 deal as an example. This BD deal was not just a performance indicator for the internal BD team; it was the company's overall plan. We aimed to make a big deal with a proper structure according to international practices. This was our biggest BD strategy.

Before the deal was finalized, I said that I wouldn't do a deal with a $500 million upfront payment and a total value of $5 billion because I thought it was too little. In terms of the deal structure, we wanted co - development and shared future revenues. Everyone thought I was talking nonsense and bragging.

During our negotiation period, multinational pharmaceutical companies still had an underlying mindset of "sweeping up Chinese innovative drugs at low prices." They generally didn't agree with our terms. At this time, we needed to confirm two things. First, did our product and data support such a deal? I believe they did. Bolin Pharma has very solid pre - clinical data and clinical samples. At the ASCO conference in early June 2023, after our oral presentation in a hall with 6,000 people, the conference chairman labeled our product as "first in class" and "new concept bispecific ADC."

Second, since the product was good, the next step was whether we had the determination to negotiate and were prepared not to do the deal if the negotiation failed. We were prepared for this. If the deal didn't go through, we would follow the path of independent global development. Short of money for independent development? We believed that as long as the product was good, we could find a way to raise funds.

36Kr: It still seems like a big gamble.

Zhu Yi: Undoubtedly, one must be daring to take risks in such deals. I often say that the essence of doing innovative drugs is to dare to "go all in."

36Kr: BD deals for innovative drugs have been very popular in the past two years. But what you described is an ideal situation. Many innovative pharmaceutical companies are doing BD to relieve cash - flow pressure and may not be able to take such risks.

Zhu Yi: At that time, our cash flow was extremely tight (Bolin Pharma had about 400 million yuan in cash on hand at that time). The market thought that we would run out of money by the end of 2023, or at most by the first half of 2024, which was a more dire situation than many current companies.

36Kr: How did you respond to these concerns at that time?

Zhu Yi: Since we were already listed, our main option for raising funds was private placement in the secondary market. However, the private placement channel was basically closed at that time. When we communicated with secondary - market investment institutions, they asked me about this. I always told them that as long as the product was good, I could find money.

36Kr: In such a skeptical environment, why did you believe you could find money?

Zhu Yi: There are two reasons. First, we have always been an efficiently operating system. Our spending speed is much slower than the so - called "burn rate" of Biotech companies in the market's perception. Our generic drug and Chinese patent medicine businesses contribute 50 million to 100 million yuan in cash each year.

For example, the outside world thought that treating a patient in domestic clinical trials would cost about 500,000 yuan, but we could do it for just over 200,000 yuan. So, while the market estimated that we would run out of money by mid - 2024, we could actually last until 2026. I was confident that we could achieve domestic commercialization before the company's funds were exhausted.

Meanwhile, due to our high efficiency, we have a nearly 30 - year history in the pharmaceutical industry and have dealt with banks for many years without any overdue payments. Our credit is excellent. Around August and September 2023, when we were still negotiating with multinational pharmaceutical companies, the market expected a $200 million upfront payment and a total deal value of $2 billion for this BD deal. At this time, the bank told us that they could lend us 1 billion yuan without collateral or guarantee, just based on our credit.

Efficiency, control, and frugality

36Kr: Every move of Bolin Pharma is closely interrelated. For example, the company's ability to be firm in BD deals is importantly supported by its high - efficiency and low - cost operations. How did you achieve this?

Zhu Yi: One important factor is that China has abundant and relatively low - cost clinical resources. Second, we have always been a company pursuing high - efficiency operations. We don't adopt a high - profile and high - cost approach; instead, we are very frugal.

36Kr: Can you give an example of frugality?

Zhu Yi: A common reason for low efficiency and high costs in a company is the lack of hands - on employees, resulting in an overlapping organizational structure that fails to solve problems effectively. The company then has to spend a lot of time, energy, and resources on operational issues. Bolin Pharma looks for employees who are truly hands - on. We have a flat organizational structure, which allows us to quickly understand the essence of things and take prompt action. That's the underlying logic.

For example, instead of using CXOs, we built a clinical team of nearly 700 people in just three years and launched more than 70 clinical studies. Each employee may be responsible for 3 - 5 projects.

Moreover, innovation should not only focus on product innovation but also on operational model innovation. Our clinical team's operational model is different from the general CRO model. In the CRO model, the project manager and the person actually executing the project are separate (for example, someone is in charge of a national project, but the project is executed by a Beijing - based team with its own leader), resulting in high communication and coordination costs.

We don't want this. We advocate that one person should be responsible for both managing the team and executing the project. Simply put, "I have the idea, and I execute it."

36Kr: How did you find the right people, and what difficulties did you encounter?

Zhu Yi: We look for smart and quick - thinking people who can execute tasks resolutely once a decision is made.

I only have 24 hours a day. I don't focus on trivial details but only on key ones, and there are already many key details. So, for example, when I visit a hospital, there must be someone who meets the requirement of being able to manage both people and affairs and is in charge of the project. I check whether they are doing their job well. They may have no experience at first, but after one round of training, they should be able to perform well. We are result - oriented.

In the past, the biggest difficulty was the shortage of such people. So, we actively recruited a large number of people, and I spent a lot of time on interviews. After recruitment, we provided intensive training, and employees learned while working and vice versa. We continuously weeded out underperformers. Under high - pressure conditions, people can tap into their potential. Moreover, many people are willing to take on both responsibilities. They may have been restricted by the existing system before, but they actually have the ability to do well.

36Kr: It seems that the working environment at Bolin Pharma is quite high - pressure.

Zhu Yi: Our performance indicators are indeed high - pressure, and I have a short temper.

36Kr: Under such a high - pressure atmosphere, what is the company's attraction for talents?

Zhu Yi: We encourage a competitive environment, but our elimination mechanism is based on income rather than a fixed percentage such as 10%. If you don't achieve a certain level of performance, your income will be low, and you have no hope of promotion. However, if you perform well, you can earn a salary that others envy.

36Kr: There aren't many CEOs who micromanage every detail like you. Does anyone within the company say that you are a "paternalistic" leader?

Zhu Yi: If they only say I'm a paternalistic leader, I think it's actually a mild description. "The boss manages too closely" might be a more objective way of putting it, and there may be more complaints. But I don't really care. The results we've achieved are obvious: a group of employees within the company have grown rapidly, our team is extremely efficient, and we've achieved many excellent results with limited costs.

When we made the deal with BMS at the end of 2023, we had data from more than 800 patients with large - scale samples, and this data was only from Chinese patients. This shows that we have both a good product and high - quality data, considering that we had only been conducting clinical trials for a short time.

36Kr: I assume many peers have consulted you about efficiency. Have they made any changes or achieved similar results?

Zhu Yi: Many have. However, it's not easy to consistently implement these practices. They need to know how to do it and execute it effectively.

36Kr: What is the core deficiency? For example, a strong leader?

Zhu Yi: In mature corporate management, managing scientists, clinical teams, and commercial teams requires three completely different sets of abilities and styles.

When dealing with scientists, you need to stimulate their enthusiasm for scientific discussions. When talking about innovation, everyone should be excited. In business, you need to understand human nature and the interest chain. You should be able to clink glasses and also be tough when necessary. When conducting clinical trials, you need to have a clear understanding of the entire process. You should be polite to collaborating researchers but also be firm when your opinions differ.

I often say that in the field of innovative drugs, you need to pursue excellence while being down - to - earth, be passionate and persistent. The second part might sound a bit harsh. You need to be talented and far - sighted. If you can't be on the front line and be persistent, there will be problems.

36Kr: You strongly emphasize understanding and controlling the front - line situation.

Zhu Yi: We've been in the market competition for many years. Back when we were doing generic drugs, we became the top one or two in highly competitive product segments thanks to this ability.

For example, when our products were penetrating different markets: the hospital market (the first - tier market), the chain pharmacy market (the second - tier market), and the primary healthcare market below the county level (the third - tier market). For instance, when someone mentions a certain county or town in Sichuan, I need to know the geographical features of the county and the street layout of the town. I also need to know approximately how many clinics and pharmacies there are and how to distribute our products to avoid price competition among sellers.

I have a mental map of the entire country. I require all teams to have a similar understanding of the market and competitive landscape in their respective regions. It's not just about having the information on the computer or in writing; it should be in their minds. When they see me, they should be able to tell me the population of the region and whether a certain street is a cross - shaped or grid - shaped street without referring to notes.

Now, with this on - the - ground competitive ability,