The Shandong provincial government on March 25 approved building the Shandong Provincial Laboratory of New Drug Development in Yantai.

The laboratory will focus on making innovations and breakthroughs in cutting-edge and disruptive drug development technologies with the support of the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The laboratory is expected to form a scientific and technological research team of 500 members and gather around 1,000 drug development professionals within three to five years. In Yantai city and Shandong province, it will generate a number of key scientific research achievements.

It will also contribute to the construction of a new world-class drug R&D innovation hub and China's "Northern Blue Medicine Valley" that has significant international influence.

Building Shandong provincial laboratories is a major measure for Shandong to develop itself into a higher-level innovative province, introduce more high-end scientific and technological resources, and expedite the replacement of old growth drivers with new ones.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), Shandong province aims to develop 10 provincial-level laboratories. Yantai has received permission to construct two of them. They are the Shandong Provincial Laboratory of New Drug Development and the Shandong Provincial Laboratory of Advanced Material and Green Manufacturing.