Biological medicine industry thrives in Yantai

Yantai, a coastal city of East China's Shandong province saw robust development in its biological medicine industry in recent years.

The city currently has 127 designated scale enterprises in the field of biological medicine, among which 55 enterprises have sales revenues of more than 100 million yuan ($15.69 million), 13 enterprises have sales revenues of more than 1 billion yuan, and five are listed. In 2020, the city's revenue of biomedical enterprises totaled 100.6 billion yuan.

Technical innovation plays a key role in promoting the development of the city's biological medicine industry, and four new drugs developed in the city have been approved for the market in 2021.

Some leading companies such as Luye Pharma Group, RemeGen Group, and Yantai Zhenghai Bio-tech Co have made breakthroughs in independently developing products.

RemeGen has developed an antibody conjugated drug (ADC), which has proven to have strong effects for treating locally advanced or metastatic gastric cancer. Luye Pharma Group made China's first globally registered innovative microsphere preparation.

The city now has 28 key innovative drugs and medical devices that have been used in clinical studies.

Yantai has a rich variety of medicine and health products such as traditional Chinese medicine, chemical raw materials, chemical pharmaceutical preparations, biological products, medical equipment, and cosmetics.

Research platforms have also greatly contributed to its biomedical industry development. The city now is home to 71 biomedical innovation platforms above the provincial level including two national key laboratories and one national enterprise technological center.

Officials said that the main business revenue of Yantai's biomedical industry is expected to exceed 200 billion yuan in 2023.