Under the auspices of the Shanghai Biopharmaceutics Industry Association and sponsored by the Qidong municipal government, the 2021 Yangtze River Delta Biopharmaceutical Industry High-quality Development Forum was held in East China's Shanghai city on April 21.

Shao Maohua, deputy Party secretary of Qidong – a county-level city administered by Nantong in East China's Jiangsu province – delivered a keynote speech at the forum, expressing thanks to those who had supported the development of Qidong's biomedicines industry.

In recent years, giving full play to the advantage of being close to Zhangjiang Pharma Valley in Shanghai, Qidong has adopted the life and health sector as a leading industry and there are plans to develop it into a major growth driver of the local economy, according to Shao.

To date, a slew of innovation platforms have located to the city. They include the Shanghai Engineering Research Center of the Interventional Medical Device Qidong Base, as well as 25 leading enterprises in the biopharmaceuticals industry, among them Bayer and WuXi AppTec.

Shao urged more people to learn more about Qidong through the forum, as well as to visit and invest in the city, to jointly boost the development of the life and health industry there.

The industrial development plan for the pharmaceutical industrial park of the Qidong Life Health Science City was also released at the forum.