AstraZeneca started production at its a new manufacturing facility at Taizhou in Jiangsu province of China in October 2014. The facility manufactures intravenous and oral solid medicines for the Chinese market.
The new plant is located at China Medical City (CMC) in Taizhou. CMC is the national-level, hi-tech development zone, which is sanctioned and sponsored by the State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA), Ministry of Science and Technology, Ministry of Health, Jiangsu Provincial Government and State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine. It focuses on the biomedical field.
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The project, which was announced in October 2011, is one of the single biggest investments made by AstraZeneca to date. It involved an investment of $230m and also created approximately 1,000 jobs during peak construction. It received the ISPE Facility of the Year Award for project implementation.
Project details of AstraZeneca’s Taizhou manufacturing facility
The plant enables the company to meet increasing demand for its products in China. It has also expanded the availability of its products to roughly 900 million people in the urban and rural communities, which traditionally had limited access to established medicines.
The company adopts a multichannel approach for selling its products in rural areas. It plans to establish an inbound and outbound call centre for reaching out to healthcare professionals.
The new facility freed up some capacity at the company’s existing manufacturing facility located in Wuxi, so that it could be utilised for developing new products. It also enables the company to produce more affordable new medicines for Chinese patients.
Innovative drugs for the Chinese healthcare market
The facility helps AstraZeneca to deliver innovative drugs to the Chinese healthcare market. It produces AstraZeneca’s own branded generics, as well as the generic brand of drugs of other companies.
Construction of the new pharmaceutical plant at China Medical City
The AstraZeneca manufacturing facility at CMC is situated in a 9.2ha site, with a built-up area of approximately 51,000m² (548,959ft²) and two main production areas. The two key production areas include a sterile dry powder filling centre for injectable cephalosporin products, and an oral solid-dosage products centre.
Contractors involved with the AstraZeneca plant in Taizhou
Cockram was awarded with a contract to provide procurement and construction management services for the plant. The scope of the contract includes offering construction services for two years with a 40-member professional construction crew.
AstraZeneca’s global headquarters and Chinese operations
Astra Zeneca is a global biopharmaceutical company headquartered in London, UK. It produces innovative medicines for millions of people across the world with its operations spread over 100 countries.
AstraZeneca established its presence in China in 1993. It has more than 57,500 staff working in 16 countries. The main drugs manufactured by the company in China include Losec, Betaloc, Plendil, Nexium, Crestor, Symbicort, and Iressa.
In December 2011, AstraZeneca acquired Guangdong BeiKang Pharmaceutical Company, a Chinese generics manufacturing company, to enter the Chinese market for injectable medicines used to treat infections.
AstraZeneca’s expansion in the country bodes well, due to the high-growth potential for pharmaceutical business in the country.
