Li Xiaomin, the Party secretary of Wuxi, Jiangsu province, met with a delegation from the British pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca headed by Pan Bin, its global production operations and information technology executive vice-president, on Nov 9, the Chinese-language Wuxi Daily reported.

Welcoming the delegation, Li praised the visitors' support for Wuxi's development in recent years. He pledged to provide continuous support and create a sound industrial environment for further expansion of AstraZeneca investments in the city.

Pan expressed her appreciation for the support of the Wuxi government and said that AstraZeneca has achieved great success in Wuxi since the establishment of AstraZeneca Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd in 2001, which has invested $500 million in Wuxi to date.

It invested $40 million to establish its Chinese logistics center in Wuxi New District (WND) at the beginning of 2014, which is scheduled to be put into operation at the beginning of 2016, becoming AstraZeneca's logistics distribution base in the Asian-Pacific region.

In 1993, London-based AstraZeneca stepped into the Chinese market for the first time. It set up its Wuxi supply base in WND in April 2001 with a total investment of $200 million. The base covers an area of 96,000 square meters and its building area is 58,000 square meters.

The company is dedicated to operating to a high ethical standard in the manufacture of superior quality healthcare products in such areas as cardiovascular disease, digestive disease, oncology, respiratory ailments, neuroscience and anti-infection remedies.