Today, at the Third China International Import and Export Expo, Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone signed an investment and cooperation agreement with AstraZeneca for AstraZeneca's headquarter in Western China, marking the arrival of another multinational pharmaceutical giant in Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone. This is also the first project of headquarter with complete functions set up by the world's leading multinational pharmaceutical enterprise in Sichuan Province.

AstraZeneca 

With its headquarter in Cambridge, UK, AstraZeneca is a global scientific pharmaceutical company that is focusing on research and development, production and marketing of prescription drugs with its main attention to the medical fields of cancer, cardiovascular, kidney and metabolism, respiratory and immune diseases. AstraZeneca entered the China market in 1993. In 2019, the annual revenue of AstraZeneca was 24.3 billion US dollars, of which the sales volume in China was nearly 4.9 billion US dollars. It is one of the fastest growing multinational pharmaceutical enterprises in China market.

AstraZeneca Headquarter in Western China 

Positioning: National regional headquarter, which will become one of the five regional headquarters of AstraZeneca in China.

Function: It will have the functions of operation, sales and innovation incubation. Some innovative products of AstraZeneca will also be imported and sold exclusively through the headquarters in Western China.

The Western China headquarter of AstraZeneca is located in Chengdu Frontier Medical Center in Phase II of Tianfu Life Science Park.

Business Innovation Center: It will focus on the integration of diagnosis and treatment. AstraZeneca provides a platform to integrate outstanding enterprises and solutions in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, and the headquarters has the functions of exhibition, supporting, research and promotion.

Industry Incubator: Relying on AstraZeneca's global advantages, to introduce and incubate the excellent projects along the "the Belt and Road" roadmap and provide professional guidance and industrial support for the incubation projects.

"The establishment of the Western China headquarter this time is to take Sichuan and Chengdu as one of the important strategic bases for AstraZeneca's business layout in China. Next, Company will take advantage of Chengdu being the strategic node city of "the Belt and Road" initiative, make full use of the national (Chengdu) biopharmaceutical research and development and innovation industrial bases and the rich resources in talent and clinical to introduce more innovative products, expand the coverage of products and services and go deep into ordinary families, so that more patients will be able to use the high-end medical resources."

—Lai Minglong, General Manager of AstraZeneca China

Phase II of Tianfu Life Science Park

Enhance the level of industrial innovation 

and Highlight the attraction of Bio Industry Ecosystem Construction 

Rank

On November 3, the Second Biotechnology Innovation Conference was held in Suzhou.

At the meeting, the Competitiveness Evaluation and Analysis Report of China's Biomedical Industrial Parks in 2020 was released. In 2020, Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone ranked third in the comprehensive competitiveness ranking of 189 biomedical industrial parks and in the lists of single competitiveness in industry and technology.

Top 10 in terms of industrial competitiveness among national biomedical industry parks in 2019

Top 10 in terms of technological competitiveness among national biomedical industry parks in 2019

Speak with Numbers 

♦ Under the special circumstances of the pandemic situation this year, Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone has continued to promote the cultivation of innovative varieties. Up to now, 94 innovative drugs have been introduced and cultivated, 34 of which are in clinical stage.

Two of the 13 COVID-19 vaccines entering the clinical trial stage in China are from Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone. The COVID-19 vaccine led by Academician Wei of Sichuan University is the first recombinant protein vaccine made from insect cells that have been approved for clinical production. The COVID-19 vaccine by Clover Biological has completed its Phase I clinical trial in Australia.

Maccura Biological has become the ONLY enterprise with double certification for performing COVID-19 detection and its products have been sold to 40 countries including Italy, Spain, etc.

Two enterprises, i.e. Chengdu Hitgen Pharmaceutical and Easton Biopharmaceuticals, have successfully landed on the Science and Technology Innovation Board market.

♦ From January to September 2020, the output value of the biological industry in Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone reached RMB 19.72 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 12.8%; the revenue of the pharmaceutical industry in Chengdu Hi-tech Industrial Development Zone was RMB 17.57 billion, accounting for 35.9% of that of Chengdu.

Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone，taking the opportunity of National Demonstration Base for the Creation of Major New Drugs, will focus on key links/areas such as vaccine development for major infectious diseases, the building of biosafety systems, precision medicine, GCP, and R&D of high-end medical devices, and endeavor to continuously improve the ecosystem of biological and pharmaceutical industry, to strengthen the construction of scientific and technological innovation platform, to accelerate the upgrading of the industrial structure, and to contribute to Chengdu's effort to construct a high quality growth pole.

Source: Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone