(Yicai Global) March 31 -- Ping An Life Insurance, a unit under China's biggest insurer, plans to pay JPY33.5 billion (USD309 million) for a 2 percent stake in Japanese pharma giant Shionogi.

Ping An Life will pick up nearly 6.4 million shares in Shionogi to become its seventh-largest shareholder, the buyer's parent Ping An Insurance said online yesterday. The pair will also set up a joint venture in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to focus on new drug therapies for central nervous system diseases and to sell two Shionogi drugs in Asia outside of Japan.

Drug research and development is an important field in the face of sudden epidemic outbreaks and aging populations, Ping An Insurance said, adding that the partnership will leverage each firms' strengths to improve drug development technologies and to build an artificial intelligence-based drugmaking and quality management system.

Shares in Ping An Insurance [SHA:601318] were up 1.45 percent at CNY70.15 (USD9.90) as of 10.21 a.m.

Editor: James Boynton