Yantai on fast track to pharmaceutical development

The International Conference on Pharmaceutical Innovation and Development is taking place in Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province on Sept 7 and 8.

More than 300 experts and influencers in the pharmaceutical industry from home and abroad have gathered in Yantai to brainstorm and discuss the latest trends and innovations in the sector.

Hosted by the Yantai government, Chinese Pharmaceutical Association and China Pharmaceutical Innovation Promotion Association, the international conference is being held with the aim of providing an exchange platform to promote the development of the medical industry.

Yantai is widely recognized as a leader in innovation in China's pharmaceutical industry. It is home to four demonstration enterprises included in the national comprehensive R&D technological platform for new medicine, a national key laboratory, and a national engineering laboratory. To date the city boasts 15,904 medical companies including 14 listed ones.

It has also in recent years strived to make efforts to attract talents in order to bolster the development of the sector. It has lured a group of high-level talents including 24 experts from China's Thousand Talents Plan and 38 scholars from the Mount Taishan Talents Plan.

Local officials say that Yantai is on the fast track to rapid pharmaceutical industry development, with Yantai based pharmaceutical company Luye Pharma Group and Remegen Group fuelling the development of the sector in the city.

"Yantai's medical research and development has progressed in recent years with the talent pool getting stronger and innovation booming," Zhang Shuping, the Party chief of Yantai city, said on the first day of the conference.

The industry's prime operating revenues reached 80 billion yuan ($12.5 billion) in 2017. The city has set a goal of building a medical and health care industry worth more than 100 billion yuan by the end of 2020.

The International Conference on Pharmaceutical Innovation and Development is held in Yantai, a coastal city in East China's Shandong province on Sept 16. [Photo provided to chinadialy.com.cn]