Biopharma sector brings city dose of prosperity

Construction began in Xinwu recently on a large-scale biopharmaceutical innovation and incubation center, and Dizal Pharmaceutical's new research and development and production headquarters in China, reinforcing the district's prowess in the industry.

Zhao Jianjun, acting mayor of Wuxi, said that as the project began in January, the city has been spurred to promote other important industrial projects.

The district, also known as Wuxi National Hi-Tech District, will implement a strategy of using industrial chains to attract investment from State-owned, private and foreign companies in 2022, local officials said.

The authorities plan for more regional headquarters, subsidiaries and industrial projects to operate in the district.

Dizal Biopharmaceutical, founded in 2017, is an innovation-driven and competitive enterprise. It will invest about 1 billion yuan ($158.2 million) in building a headquarters and incubation center project and some 2 billion yuan in R&D in the first phase to build its innovative drug R&D and manufacturing center.

Its goal is to have at least one innovative drug approved and put on the market in the next five years.

The project's second phase will expand the company's commercial capacity, incubation center, R&D labs and logistics and support facilities.

Zhang Xiaolin, the company's president, said Dizal will attract partners in the fields of R&D, capital and industry to jointly develop a competitively biopharmaceutical industrial cluster with Wuxi.

The high-tech district is a key area of the city's biopharmaceutical industry development. It has formed an industrial cluster focusing on innovative medicine and preparations, medical instruments and diagnostic reagents as well as smart medical treatment and health services.

It has attracted noted biopharmaceutical companies such as AstraZeneca, Nutricia, Genertec Medical and Yunnan Baiyao to start developments there.

A biopharmaceutical foreign trade transformation and upgrading center in the district provides a public technology service platform. It has seen the establishment of a medical laboratory and encouraged pharmaceutical outsourcing companies to set up service platforms involving the whole industrial chain.

The center has led companies to hold market expansion events and assisted them to attend national medical instrument exhibitions, trade fairs and international medical expos.

It has organized biopharmaceutical companies to attend the China International Import Expo in Shanghai for four consecutive years. There they held and participated in forums at the medical instrument and healthcare exhibition area.

The center also launched promotion and discussion events with healthcare security authorities and hospitals to publicize new products, technologies and services.

Among leading companies operating in the center is AstraZeneca, which produces and sells nearly 40 kinds of drugs. It set up its Chinese logistics center in Wuxi while its supply center in the city has exported medicine to nearly 70 countries and regions.

Chison Medical Technologies is another representative company. It boasts 40 key technologies involving ultrasonic fields and sells its self-developed products to more than 100 countries and regions.

The center plans to attract major projects and become more influential in the biopharmaceutical field during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).

songmengxing@chinadaily.com.cn