The signing ceremony for CStone Pharmaceuticals' Global R&D Headquarters and Industrialization Base took place in Suzhou on 6 August 2019. The event marks the building of yet another state-of-the-art research and development (R&D) centre and manufacturing facility in Suzhou Industrial Park. The signatory parties at the ceremony included Mr. Lixin Ding, Deputy Secretary of Suzhou Industrial Park's (SIP) Party and Union Committee and Director of the Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee (SIPAC); Mr. Xiaoming Lin, Member of the SIP's Party and Union Committee, Deputy Director of SIPAC and Head of SIPAC's Organization Department; Mr. Xiaomin Ye, Chairman of Suzhou Sungent Holding Group; Mr. Yue Kang, Vice Chairman and General Manager of Suzhou Sungent Holding Group; and Dr. Frank Jiang, Chairman and CEO of CStone.

The SIP provided strong support for both the Project's investment and construction plan. According to the agreement, the construction of the site, with a planned building area of approximately 100,000m², will be commissioned to a third party and is scheduled to break ground in 2020. Once completed, the complex will be equipped with integrated capabilities for R&D, Pilot Plant, and full commercial-scale manufacturing, which will have a production capacity of 26,000L for macromolecule biologics and 1 billion tablets and capsules for small molecule drugs.

CStone is committed to the development of innovative oncology treatments to address unmet clinical needs associated with some of the most prevalent cancers in China. The company's pipeline strategy is centred on combination therapies coupled with precision medicine. CStone is the only company in China that has all three backbone immunotherapies, PD-1, PD-L1 and CTLA-4, in clinical development. Currently, CStone has 5 drug candidates at or near the pivotal trial stage. The company is on track to commercialize multiple novel drug products in the next 1 to 2 years. The building of the manufacturing complex will help CStone develop a hybrid manufacturing model consisting of parallel and complementary in-house and out-sourced productions to ensure manufacturing capacity. The Project will enhance the company's capabilities and efficiency in R&D and the potential for future collaborations. Driven by the vision set out in the national government's Healthy China 2030 Planning Outline, CStone's strengthened R&D capabilities will further enable the company to advance the nation's health by making more innovative oncology drugs accessible for Chinese patients.

Dr Frank Jiang, Chairman and CEO of CStone, commented: "The Suzhou Industrial Park has in recent years created a vibrant innovation-driven biopharmaceutical ecosystem through its effective promotion of emerging strategic industries. Since its inception in 2016, CStone has received tremendous support from the Suzhou Industrial Park. We are highly confident in SIP's policy environment and infrastructure and have therefore chosen Suzhou as our global headquarters for R&D and manufacturing. With a strong base in Suzhou, CStone aims to become globally recognized as a leading biopharmaceutical company in China and make significant contributions to the sector in Suzhou and nationwide."

Dr Jingrong Li, CStone's SVP of Product Development and Manufacturing, noted: "Manufacturing process, product safety, efficacy and quality, and supply chain, are of vital importance to patients. As such, we will leverage our optimized design and adopt stringent compliance practices in the entire product development and manufacturing process. Our goal is to make this R&D centre and manufacturing site a world-class facility for pharmaceutical innovation, thereby producing high-quality drugs that patients can trust and afford."