Another 10 projects worth 3.35 billion yuan ($479 million) will soon break ground in Taicang, a county-level city in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, according to a contract signing ceremony on March 9.

The projects include both frontier biological medicine bases and industry-leading human resources programs.

Among them, Smart Pharmaceutical Co will invest $200 million to build a research, development, and production center focusing on the sustained-release preparations. The center will cover an area of 95 mu (6.33 hectares) and is expected to reach a sales amount of 1 billion yuan ($143 million) in three years.

Biological medicine is a key part of Taicang's industrial development strategy. The city has been forming a cluster of biomedical enterprises in Taicang Biomedicine Industrial Park and Taicang Biological Bay.

Since the outbreak, the park and bay have doing all they can to help enterprises get back to work. Twelve preferential policies were implemented by the government to help small- and micro-sized enterprises survive the epidemic. Utility subsidies, rental subsidies, and infection-prevention guidance were also offered by local authorities.

As of today, all of the biological enterprises in Taicang have resumed operations in an orderly manner. Many of them are working around the clock to produce nucleic acid papers and other urgently need medical supplies.