July 24 witnessed the successful topping out of the main structure of Bai Cao Tang Huadu Pharmaceutical Base, a project with a total investment of 1 billion yuan. Integrating R&D, production, and testing, this modern intelligent manufacturing base for traditional Chinese medicine has officially entered the critical stage of equipment installation and production preparation, and is expected to start production by the end of 2027. The implementation of the project is not only a strategic move by Bai Cao Tang, a time-honored TCM brand, to deepen its efforts in modernization and industrialization, but also a landmark achievement of Huadu District in its pursuit of precise chain-type investment promotion, filling gaps in biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and sprinting toward the goal of becoming a core biomedicine carrier area in northern Greater Bay Area.

A 600-year-old brand upholds fundamental principles and breaks new ground

Hard technologies strengthen the core competitiveness of the industry

BCT, a long-established TCM brand in China, can trace its origins back to the seventh year of the Yongle era of the Ming Dynasty (1409 AD). Six hundred years of heritage has seen its leapfrog transformation from a traditional pharmacy applying ancient technologies to a modern pharmaceutical industry group that has formed a full-chain business pattern covering herbal cultivation, scientific research and extraction, formulation production, and terminal chain operations. Having invested in a 300,000-mu (49421 acres) standardized base for ecological planting, breeding, and research, and modern pharmaceutical and herbal extraction workshops with national GMP certificates for the whole process, the company’s industrial hardware remains among the top in the industry.

Collaborative innovation among enterprises, academia, and research institutes is the core lever for BCT to break through industry bottlenecks. In its deep collaboration with Zhejiang University, the company has built the "Zhejiang University - Baicaotang Joint R&D Center," which brings together top TCM experts from home and abroad for continuous development of cutting-edge technologies in the fields of therapeutic Chinese herbal medicines and biopharmaceuticals. It is worth mentioning that the company independently developed after a decade long endeavor the bioengineering technology for in vitro cultivation of bezoar, which offers a thorough solution to the industry's pain points, scarcity in natural bezoar resources and the difficulty in standardized large-scale mass production, and lays a technical foundation for stable supply of Angong Niuhuang Pills and other high-end and precious Chinese patent medicines. This is gap filling achievement for domestic industrialization.

With its strong brand power and independent R&D capabilities, BCT has successively won over a hundred authoritative honors, including Guangdong Time-Honored Brand, high and New-Technology Enterprise, National Trusted Pharmaceutical Brand of the Pharmaceutical Industry, and Outstanding Contribution Unit for Scientific and Technological Innovation during the 14th Five-Year Plan Period. It has become a benchmark enterprise for innovative manufacturing of traditional Chinese medicine in Lingnan region, demonstrating strong capabilities of a pacesetting enterprise to lead the industry and coordinate industrial chain development.

A 60-mu intelligent manufacturing base established in Huashan

Fills a key gap in Huadu's TCM manufacturing

The newly topped out BCT Huadu Pharmaceutical Base is located in the biopharmaceutical industry cluster area of Huashan Town. High-standard full-function facilities, including workshops for raw materials, topical formulations, and oral formulation, are to be built in the planned area of about 60 mu (about 10 acres). With 11 buildings, the park is ready to accommodate upstream and downstream enterprises. Put into operation, the base’s core capacity will cover in vitro cultivated bezoar as raw materials, Angong Niuhuang Pills, Niuhuang Qingxin Pills, and other precious Chinese medicines containing bezoar as an ingredient, as well as topical formulations like compound menthol ointment, which will establish an integrated production chain of "specialty raw materials—high-end Chinese patent medicines—external health products."

For the company, BCT Huadu Pharmaceutical Base will completely eliminate capacity bottlenecks, accelerate the local commercialization of laboratory research achievements, and empower the company's nationwide market layout and high-quality brand development; while for Huadu's industrial development, the project will complement in a precise manner the big picture of Huadu's intelligent manufacturing for CTM and big health, filling the gap in local large-scale production of high-end bezoar as raw materials and classic famous medicines. It will connect BCT's existing pharmaceutical bases, Hubei production sector, and its national chain network of TCM clinics to build a complete closed-loop industrial chain from ecological cultivation of Chinese medicinal materials, extraction of active ingredients, intelligent manufacturing of formulations to offline terminal diagnosis and treatment, so as to continuously strengthen the foundation for Huadu's real economy in the big health sector.

Pacesetting enterprises are gathering at an accelerated pace

Huadu's biopharmaceutical industry is rising with momentum

Guangzhou launched a campaign in 2026 to comprehensively advance its investment promotion. And Huadu, riding on its dual advantages as an airport hub and a national-level economic development zone, setting its eye on the strategic position as the "new biopharmaceutical growth pole in northern Guangzhou," and following the development path of "making Huadu a hub of pilot-scale transformation for global R&D and innovation”, has introduced special support policies for the biopharmaceutical industry, and continuously improved the full lifecycle industry cultivation system.

Currently, Huadu's biopharmaceutical industry ecosystem has begun to take shape: the District is home to a number of high-quality enterprises such as Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, Sinopharm, China Resources, and Alibaba Health. Its industry scope covers diverse fields, including pharmaceutical distribution, pharmaceutical R&D, and medical devices, and form a fully integrated industrial cluster with seamless upstream-downstream synergy. The completion and operation of BCT’s billion-yuan TCM intelligent manufacturing project will further enrich Huadu's biopharmaceutical product categories, making it a typical demonstration of regional chain-based investment promotion.

The 30-minute air-rail intermodal transportation circle around Baiyun Airport gives Huadu unique advantages of high-efficiency cold chains, and import-export customs clearance for biopharmaceuticals. In the future, Huadu District will continue to focus on high-value biomanufacturing, cell and gene therapy, and high-end medical and wellness, further amplify the advantages to take in airport-based industries, and cultivate a batch of leading manufacturing projects worth one billion, or even ten billion yuan.