Chi-Med Hosts Ground-breaking Ceremony for a Large-Scale Manufacturing Plant in Zhangjiang, Shanghai

Shanghai: Chi-Med (Nasdaq/AIM: HCM) today held a ground-breaking ceremony in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, Shanghai, commencing construction of a large-scale manufacturing plant for innovative drugs. Representatives from the Shanghai municipal government, Shanghai Free-Trade Zone, Zhangjiang Management Committee and Zhangjiang Group, as well as partners including Sinopharm Group, AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly, attended the ground-breaking ceremony.

The Shanghai Factory will be Chi-Med’s largest manufacturing facility, with production capacity estimated to be five times that of its manufacturing plant in Suzhou. The current Suzhou site is a GMP-certified production facility, supplying drug candidates for clinical trials and the commercialization of Elunate^® (fruquintinib capsules). Chi-Med plans to continue to invest resources in the Suzhou facility, expanding the production team in phases.

Mr. Christian Hogg, Chief Executive Officer of Chi-Med, said, “We are pleased to witness another important milestone for Chi-Med in Zhangjiang, where our innovation started. It is here that our team of scientists has been discovering and developing our innovative therapies. Our self-discovered drug Elunate^® (fruquintinib) is available to patients in China and we have two more in-house discovered drug candidates, surufatinib and savolitinib, under review in China, both of which we aim to launch next year. Building on our leading position in China, Chi-Med is striding towards our global ambitions.  We plan to submit the new drug application for surufatinib in the U.S. around the end of the year. The establishment of the Shanghai Factory will significantly increase Chi-Med’s production capacity to bring our home-grown Chinese innovations to more patients in China and around the world.”

The Shanghai Factory site spans 28,700 square meters. Constructed in two phases, the buildings will have a total floorplan of almost 55,000 square meters. The first phase will be primarily for small molecule production, with production capacity expected to be able to produce 250 million tablets and 550 million capsules per year. The second phase is expected to include expansion into large molecule production.