China welcomes new US$1 billion Sanofi project in Beijing

Chinese authorities rolled out the red carpet for French pharmaceutical and healthcare giant Sanofi, which plans to invest around 1 billion euros (US$1.05 billion) to build a new insulin plant in Beijing – the company’s single biggest capital outlay in the world’s second-largest economy.

Vice-Premier He Lifeng on Tuesday told Sanofi chairman Frédéric Oudéa that China will continue to improve its operating environment for businesses and welcome European firms in the country, according to a Xinhua news agency report.

Their meeting came after Beijing Communist Party Secretary Yin Li, also a member of China’s 24-member Politburo, met Oudéa on Monday. Yin said Beijing hopes Sanofi will speed up the project and bring new drugs to China, according to the official Beijing Daily. He also expected Sanofi to deepen its ties with local pharmaceutical enterprises and medical institutes in areas such as artificial intelligence, according to the report.

Sanofi said the new plant will be its fourth such facility on the mainland. It also represents one of the largest foreign-funded projects in China in recent years, following Tesla’s Gigafactory 3 in Shanghai that cost an estimated US$2 billion.

The Beijing project reflects Sanofi’s optimism in its prospects in the country amid steady economic cooperation between China and the European Union in spite of tensions related to trade and the war in Ukraine.