Medical drugs are continuously rolling off the production lines at Shijiazhuang No. 4 Pharmaceutical, ensuring a stable supply to the market.

The water-injection formulation production line in Workshop 104 of Shijiazhuang Fourth Pharmaceutical has begun production for the Year of the Ox.

In mid-spring, at the garden-like campus of Shijiazhuang Sihua Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., a major backbone pharmaceutical enterprise in Hebei Province, willows are bursting into lush greenery and a dazzling array of flowers are in full bloom. In the first quarter of this year, the company achieved double-digit year-on-year growth in both total industrial output value and sales revenue, securing an outstanding “strong start” to the quarter.

Stepping into the production workshop of Shisi Pharmaceutical, one sees employees bustling about everywhere. Automated equipment hums cheerfully, and everywhere exudes a vibrant energy reminiscent of spring. Wu Hengyao, President of Shisi Pharmaceutical, said, “Recently, we faced a severe test from the pandemic. With the help of the government and all sectors of society, we spared no expense to do our utmost to safeguard the market and stabilize production, ensuring the smooth operation of our business and laying a solid foundation for achieving a strong start to the first quarter.”

In the workshop for preparing four-drug injection solutions, the filling equipment on the “three-in-one” polypropylene ampoule small-volume injection production line is running at high speed. Neatly arranged products are rapidly emerging from the conveyor belt in orderly fashion. “Doxofylline Injection and Ambroxol Hydrochloride Injection are two new products that have recently passed the consistency evaluation. Before the Spring Festival, they both won bids in the fourth round of national centralized drug procurement tenders, setting a promising start for expanding production and broadening our market share throughout the year,” said Wu Hengyao. Among these two winning products, Ambroxol Hydrochloride Injection will be exclusively supplied to three provinces and cities—Shanghai, Tianjin, and Qinghai—while Doxofylline Injection will be exclusively supplied to six provinces and cities: Hubei, Yunnan, Chongqing, Heilongjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Ningxia.

Wu Hengyao said excitedly, “Winning this bid to supply first-tier cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin will strongly promote the ‘deep cultivation’ and ‘wide expansion’ of Shisi Pharmaceutical’s products in the domestic market, and will have a positive and far-reaching impact on increasing our market share, further optimizing our product portfolio, and comprehensively enhancing the brand influence of Shisi Pharmaceutical.”

In recent years, large-volume intravenous solutions have consistently been the “flagship” product of Siyao, with its soft-bag IV solutions accounting for nearly half of the national market share in this product category. In the past at Siyao, one would mostly see and hear about the production of large-volume IV solutions. But now, diversified and innovative integration across the entire pharmaceutical value chain—including small-volume injections, oral formulations, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and pharmaceutical packaging materials—has injected a new momentum of rapid, high-quality development into this pharmaceutical company.

In the oral solid dosage form workshop of Siyao, over ten production processes—from material preparation and ingredient blending to filling, aluminum-plastic packaging, machine assembly, inspection, sealing, and boxing—are carried out precisely, efficiently, and in an orderly manner. “Our workshop is responsible for products that have won bids in national and regional centralized procurement programs,” says Yang Yuxia, the workshop director. “The procurement volumes are large, and delivery deadlines are tight. The more challenging the situation, the more strictly we must adhere to process requirements. There can be absolutely no room for even the slightest carelessness in the production process—every single tablet must stand up to the rigorous scrutiny of the market.” The workshop faces a heavy production workload; its annual production schedule is already fully booked, and new products are constantly being introduced and transferred into production.

The abundant innovative achievements have given Shijiazhuang Fourth Pharmaceutical even greater confidence and momentum for its development in the Year of the Ox. In recent years, Shijiazhuang Fourth Pharmaceutical has taken optimizing its product structure as a breakthrough point, continuously accelerating the research and development of innovative drugs as well as studies on the consistency evaluation of generic drug quality and efficacy. As a result, its innovation performance has risen to the forefront of the industry. In particular, in the area of generic drug development and consistency evaluation studies, the company secured 24 various approvals in just the first quarter alone—among them, four varieties and five specifications have either passed or been deemed to have passed the generic drug consistency evaluation. Currently, Fourth Pharmaceutical has 12 varieties and 17 specifications of generic drugs that have either passed or been deemed to have passed the national consistency evaluation, earning them the “entry pass” for national centralized drug procurement. The number and pace of these approvals place Fourth Pharmaceutical at the leading edge of the industry.

“We are developing more than 160 new products, covering a wide range of therapeutic areas including clinical antiviral and antibacterial drugs, cardiovascular treatments, digestive care, anesthesia, and others. In the near future, the situation in which Shisi Pharmaceutical dominates the intravenous infusion market will be rewritten. The synergistic development of multiple dosage forms will become a key growth driver for the company’s future profitability, and innovation will empower and amplify our company’s market advantages on an even larger scale,” said Wu Hengyao confidently. “In the past, our products were mainly concentrated in North China, Northeast China, and Northwest China. However, in recent years, as we’ve continuously optimized our product mix and kept pace with regional centralized drug procurement tenders, our market has gradually expanded to include South China, Southwest China, Central China, and other regions.”

As we enter March, Shisi Pharmaceutical has obtained production approvals for two new products: Bromhexine Hydrochloride Injection and Metronidazole Sodium Chloride Injection. Moving forward, Shisi Pharmaceutical will seize the golden period of market adjustment, accelerate the launch and maintenance of its products in winning bid markets, and fully prepare for the bidding process in the next round of national centralized procurement. At the same time, the company will continue to proactively explore and develop markets with forward-looking potential and strong driving effects, striving to achieve “more than half” of its targets for the second quarter.