Pharma Joint Ventures In Chinese Province

A total of 63 joint ventures with foreign pharmaceutical companies have been set up within China's Zhejiang province.

the drug industry is centered in the provincial capital Hangzhou, where nine foreign drug companies have invested $87.9 million since the beginning of 1995. The province plans to make the drug sector a pillar industry during the Ninth Five-Year Plan period (1996-2000).

In 1994, Merck Sharp & Dohme invested $26 million in a joint venture with a Hangzhou company to set up what the province called the world's largest drug plant; the plant can produce 100 million tablets per year. Sanofi has invested $15 million in setting up a joint venture, and Allergan also invested $29.7 million to open a branch in the provincial capital.