(Yicai Global) June 21 -- British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca will establish its sixth regional headquarters in China in Qingdao and build a factory in the eastern city to produce aerosol therapies for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The drugmaker will set up a rare disease-themed innovation center, a life science innovation park, and an industry fund in the coastal city in Shandong province, the Cambridge-headquartered company said yesterday during the third Qingdao Multinationals Summit.

The company's budesonide/glycopyrronium/formoterol fumarate therapy used to treat the chronic inflammatory lung disease was included in China's national medical insurance drug catalog last year after winning sales approval in 2020.

Building the plant in Qingdao aims to better fulfill patients' strong need for inhaled budesonide while advancing the development of the city's biomedicine industry, said Leon Wang, China president of the medical giant.

AstraZeneca has invested more than USD1 billion in China since it entered the market in 1993, according to the firm's website. The company has its China HQ and research and development center in Shanghai. It also has production bases in Jiangsu province's Wuxia and Taizhou. The five regional HQs are in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, and Chengdu.

China is AstraZeneca's second-biggest market. Some USD6 billion of the firm's revenues came from China last year, rising 12 percent from 2020, according to the annual earnings report. Meanwhile, AstraZeneca's global revenue surged 41 percent to USD37.4 billion.

Editor: Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi