Pharmaceutical companies in Beijing's Economic Technological Development Area, or E-town, all put in a good showing this year when the China ChemPharm Annual Summit for 2014 announced its Top 100 list of chemical pharmaceutical companies, on Nov 26, in the city of Guangzhou, Guangdong province.

A number of E-town's enterprises even joined the uppr half of the list, including the Beijing Tiantan Biological Products Co, Beijing Tide Pharmaceutical Co, and Sanofi China, reflecting E-town's role of the domestic industry, and the way it has emphasized pharmaceutical business development since its very beginning and advanced, innovative ideas and a good investment environment.

The zone has attracted more than 500 enterprises in pharmaceutical production, as well as bio-medicines, traditional Chinese medicine, diagnostic reagents, vaccines, medical imaging equipment, and surgical implants.

It has production and R&D centers of international giants such as the Bayer Group and GE Medical, and has been successful in helping domestic companies put their intellectual property rights into production. Its output value for the first three quarters of this year was 21 billion yuan ($3.4 billion), for a 21 percent year-on-year growth.

The summit was organized by the China Pharmaceutical Industry Association, China Association of Pharmaceutical Commerce, China Nonprescription Medicine Association, and China Pharmaceutical Enterprises Promotion Fair.

Edited by Fang Sha and Roger Bradshaw