Hangzhou to build highland for biopharmaceutical industry

Hangzhou, capital of East China's Zhejiang province, is beefing up efforts to build itself into a highland for the biopharmaceutical industry, with an R&D and manufacturing center of the world's largest measurement equipment provider, Agilent Technologies Inc settling in the city.

As a global leader in life sciences, diagnostics, and applied chemical markets, the US-based Agilent Technologies has more than 50 years of insight and innovation and has developed a fine reputation in the fields of analytical instruments and methods for drug testing in sports.

Its instrument for the analysis of live-cells in real-time is widely used in new drug research and development, immunotherapy, vaccine research and development, and basic life science research in over 30 countries and regions around the world.

"This marks another milestone of Agilent's expansion in China. We will commit to the R&D and commercialization of global innovative products in cell research, so as to help Hangzhou keep a competitive edge in the innovative development of the biopharmaceutical industry," said Agilent's global CEO Mike McMulle.

Over the years, Hangzhou has issued a host of supportive policies to promote the transformation and upgrading of biopharmaceutical industry. In 2017, the total output value of the pharmaceutical industry above designated size in Hangzhou exceeded 50 billion yuan ($7.43 billion).

From January to October 2018, a total of 3,870 new biopharmaceutical enterprises were established in Hangzhou, a year-on-year increase of 26 percent.

It is expected that by 2022, the main business income of the industry will exceed 100 billion yuan.