"We decided to invest 500 million yuan ($70.05 million) to build a Soliqua? (insulin glargine lixisenatide injection) product filling and assembly production line at Sanofi (Beijing) Pharmaceutical's insulin production base to further ensure the supply of innovative products." said Shi Wang, president of Sanofi Greater China.

This is another microcosm of how the "Two Zones" empowers foreign investment and foreign trade.

Production line employees assemble and operate equipment on the Lantus line. [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

In Shi's view, Sanofi's robust development in recent years is one of the benefits of the sound business environment and innovative management concepts of Beijing E-Town. 

Sanofi (Beijing) Pharmaceutical Co, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sanofi Group in China, settled in Beijing E-Town in December 1995. Since then, Sanofi has continuously increased its investment in Beijing E-Town. Since 2010, Sanofi has continuously invested 79 million euros to build advanced insulin aseptic filling production lines and group packaging production lines. It has become Sanofi's largest injection production base in the Asia-Pacific region. 

Today, Sanofi (Beijing) Pharmaceutical Co's products cover diabetes, cardiovascular, internal medicine, tumors, and rare diseases. There are nearly 20 kinds of products. While meeting the needs of the Chinese market, they are also exported to Australia, Taiwan and Japan.

A view of Sanofi (Beijing) Pharmaceutical Co [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]

With the debut of the innovative drug Soliqua? at this year's CIIE, demand for the production capacity of Sanofi is expected to rise. 

"This drug can effectively help patients achieve full blood sugar standards, with a small risk of hypoglycemia and no weight gain. It breaks through the limitations of existing treatment options and will help usher in a new era of 'high quality standards' for Chinese diabetic patients. The launch of the new product line will also improve the accessibility and affordability of drugs for patients," Schwann remarked. 

This project will build a new aseptic isolator filling production line, and upgrade the existing two assembly and packaging lines. Once the project is completed and put into use, it will have the ability to produce three insulin products, including Soliqua?, Ushi (insulin glargine injection 300U/mL) and Lantus? (insulin glargine injection 100U/mL).

Lantus assembly line [Photo/beijingetown.com.cn]