Pfizer boosts China presence with US$350m biotech plant

Beijing

PFIZER Inc will invest US$350 million in eastern China on a plant for biotechnology drugs, bolstering its presence in the world's second largest pharmaceutical market despite slowing economic growth in the country and rising pressure on prices for medicines.

The new facility in eastern Hangzhou city is expected to be completed in 2018 and will manufacture biologics, or complex medicines made from living organisms, as well as cheaper copycat versions known as biosimilars for patients in China and across the world, Pfizer said in an e-mailed statement Tuesday.