The quality and quantity of innovative drugs developed by Shanghai's Pudong New Area are in China's leading position in 2018. [Photo/pdtimes.com.cn]

One of the main forces of the pharmaceutical industry in Shanghai, the biomedicine industry in Pudong New Area has become a key industry in this area with a rapid growth in industrial scale.

In 2018, the industrial output value and service industry revenue of the biomedicine industry in Pudong New Area reached 67.2 billion yuan ($9.99 billion), up 12.7 percent year-on-year.

The industrial output value of the manufacturing enterprises above the designated level exceeded 50 billion yuan, reaching 54.8 billion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 16.2 percent, becoming an important growth point of the manufacturing industry in the area.

Moreover, the four new drug certificates approved by the China Food and Drug Administration in Shanghai last year were all from Pudong New Area, and two were for first-class new drugs.

Pudong has maintained its national lead in R&D and innovation, and a number of key products have been launched. To date, seven first-class new drugs from the area have been approved for listing, accounting for nearly 20 percent of the country's total.

Fruquintinib, China's first domestically-developed cancer treatment drug to enter the market, came from the pharmaceutical company Hutchison China MediTech Limited of Pudong's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park.

Another of the park's companies, Shanghai Junshi Biosciences Co Ltd, has nabbed China's first approval for a homegrown anti-PD-1 treatment, an emerging cancer therapy that boosts the immune system to help the body to target and kill tumors.