Three counties in Taizhou -Tiantai, Xianju, and Sanmen - were recently included in a provincial campaign initiated by Zhejiang to boost the growth of the biotech sectors in its 26 mountainous counties.

According to the action plan released by the Zhejiang provincial department of economy and information technology, Zhejiang aims to lift the output value of the biotech industry in the 26 counties to above 50 billion yuan ($7.69 billion) by 2025 and to more than 100 billion yuan by 2030.

The three counties in Taizhou are tasked with stepping up the development of high-end active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and intermediates, as well as facilitating the transformation of the medical device sector and exploring developing advanced bio-pharmaceuticals, the action plan noted.

Tiantai is home to a number of biological medicine enterprises, such as Zhejiang Shengda Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, Aurisco Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, and Zhejiang Tianhuang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.

From January to November in 2020, the total industrial output value of the biomedical industry in the county reached 1.75 billion yuan, with its exports reaching 970 million yuan.

Xianju is a manufacturing hub for medical devices. The output value of its biotech industry amounted to about 8.56 billion in 2019, official data showed. There are six listed companies involved in the sector in the county.

As for Sanmen, it is currently home to Zhejiang Hengkang Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and Zhejiang East Asia Pharmaceutical Co Ltd. The latter made its initial public offering on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange in late November last year.