The province of Shandong has a robust pharmaceutical industry which accounts for one seventh of the country's total, according to local officials.

Shandong is home to 21 state-level pharmaceutical innovation platforms, five drug safety evaluation and research centers, 61 drug clinical trial institutions, and four key laboratories operated by the National Medical Products Administration.

Employees inspect products at a pharmaceutical plant in Tengzhou, Shandong province in February. [Photo by Song Haicun/For China Daily]

Last year, 53 new drugs produced by Shandong-based companies were approved, ranking third in China. Qilu Pharmaceutical and another 12 enterprises in Shandong entered the top 100 pharmaceutical enterprises in China, more than any other province in the country.

Pharmaceuticals and healthcare is listed among the top 10 industries in Shandong.

In order to build a trillion-yuan pharmaceutical industrial cluster, the province has issued a series of supporting policies, focusing on cultivating 14 biomedical industrial clusters in Jinan Innovation Zone, Yantai Economic and Technological Development Area, Heze High-tech Industry Development Zone and other areas. It has also cultivated a large number of well-known enterprises in the medical industry.

The business revenue of Jinan's biomedical industry has exceeded 100 billion yuan ($14.6 billion), and the city has proposed a plan to increase the output to 200 billion yuan by 2022.

The provincial capital is building the Jinan International Center for Medical Sciences (JIMC) in the western part of the city, which will gather top medical teams from around China. The Life Science City in Jinan Innovation Zone is designed to be an international biomedical industry pilot area, which will advance the development of medical care, medical equipment and other major health industries.