Overview
Huadong Medicine was established in 1993 and is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang. It is a large-scale comprehensive listed pharmaceutical company integrating R&D, manufacturing and sales, modern logistics, the healthcare industry, and aesthetic products (stock code: 000963). The company has been selected as one of the Fortune China Top 500 company many times. It has also been awarded the “Top 50 Best Listed Companies in the Asia Pacific” by Forbes three times.

Overseas investment and collaboration
In 2019, Huadong and the US company R2 Dermatology signed a distribution agreement for the Asia-Pacific Region for their aesthetic products. Huadong made an equity investment in R2 Dermatology to fund R2’s next phase of product and market development. The same year, Huadong reached an exclusive commercialization agreement with the US MediBeacon, an advancing fluorescent technology company. The deal will provide exclusive rights to MediBeacon’s portfolio of assets in Greater China. Huadong Medicine will be responsible for funding the clinical trials, commercial and regulatory activities in 25 Asian countries.
This year, Huadong entered a co-development partnership with Exscientia, an AI drug discovery company, to accelerate the discovery of breakthrough small-molecule therapeutics as an innovative approach to oncology. Also, in the past week, the company licensed-in ImmunoGen Ovarian ADC for Greater China. Under the terms of the agreement, ImmunoGen will receive an upfront payment of US$40 million and is eligible to receive additional milestone payments of up to US$265 million as certain development, regulatory, and commercial objectives are achieved.

Main business
The main business of Huadong covers three major sectors: the manufacturing and business of pharmaceuticals and international aesthetic products.

Huadong’s core wholly-owned subsidiary, Hangzhou Zhongmeihuadong Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, is China’s dominant diabetes and transplant immunotherapy drug R&D and production company. It has multiple leading first-line clinical drugs in the four fields of chronic kidney disease, transplantation immunity, the endocrine system, and the digestive system.

Huadong Medicine focuses on innovative drugs and high-tech generic drugs in the three core therapeutic areas of anti-tumor, endocrine, and autoimmunity through independent R&D, licensing-in, and project collaboration.

Huadong Medicine’s pharmaceutical business ranks among the best in Zhejiang Province. As a comprehensive large-scale pharmaceutical business service provider, the company has been among the Top 10 Chinese pharmaceutical business enterprises for many years. Huadong has four business segments: Chinese and Western medicines, medical devices, rare medicinal herbs, and the healthcare industry. It covers pharmaceutical wholesale products and retail, third-party logistics, e-commerce, and value-added hospital services to provide customers with comprehensive solutions.

The company’s aesthetic business focuses on the latest product R&D, production, and sales in the field of facial micro-plastic surgery and skin management. Sinclair, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Huadong Medicine, is headquartered in the United Kingdom. It has production bases in France, the Netherlands, and the United States. Sinclair promotes and sells products such as long-acting microspheres for injection, hyaluronic acid, and facial lifting and embedding in the global market. Their core products are listed in more than 60 countries and regions around the world. The holding subsidiary Huadong Ningbo Medicine is a comprehensive aesthetic product platform integrating product R&D, production, sales, and customized services. It is the general agent for promoting and sales of South Korean YVOIRE hyaluronic acid products in the China market and leading the market share in aesthetic products.

R&D
The company has a complete independent R&D system. It established a global new drug R&D center and set up joint research offices in Boston and Silicon Valley. It also collaborates with world-renowned universities, research institutes, innovative biological companies, and professional technology platforms in new drug projects. Huadong Medicine has applied for more than 500 patents in China and worldwide over the years, including more than 260 authorized invention patents.