(Yicai Global) July 7 -- Shares of Hengrui Medicine jumped to a historic high today after the Chinese drugmaker said that it will join hands with its ex-chairman to expand into a new field, antiviral treatments.

Hengrui's stock price [SHA:600276] surged to CNY97.50 (USD13.90) intraday today. The firm got listed in Shanghai in 2000.

The medical firm's unit will pay CNY60 million (USD8.6 million) to hold a 60 percent stake in the pair's joint venture, and Sun Piaoyang will get 40 percent of the equity at a corresponding rate, the Jiangsu province-based company said in a statement yesterday, without specifying the JV's future products.

Sun stepped down as chairman of Hengrui at the beginning of this year but remains the actual controller of the fifty-year-old company that makes cancer treatments, anesthetics, and antibiotics.

Editor: Emmi Laine