Beijing to Set Up China's Largest "Medicine Valley"The Chinese capital plans to develop China's largest "Medicine Valley," a center for the pharmaceutical industry as that the US "Silicon Valley" for the high-tech industry, according to a forum on Chinese medicine and natural medicine Sunday.The forum is part of the ongoing Beijing International Hi-Tech Industries Week. The "Medicine Valley" will be based on a pharmaceutical industry center in the Beijing Economic and Technological Development Zone, which has built up a series of medicine and biological engineering businesses after seven years of development. A lot of prestigious companies have settled in the valley. Two sub-companies of Tongrentang, China's leading producer of Chinese medicine, have invested 30 million yuan (about 3.6 million US dollars) each to set up workshops. Other medicine companies include some engaged in new and hi- tech medicine research and development of such as microbic medicine, biological medicine and genetic diagnosis reagents. Over 60 Chinese and foreign companies have so far invested a total investment of 410 million U.S. dollars in the valley, including prestigious companies from Germany and Japan. Last year, the center recorded an output value of 1.5 billion yuan 181 million U.S. dollars) and a sales revenue totaling 1.3 billion yuan (157 million U.S. dollars). |
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