A video conference is held between representatives of the Suzhou municipal government and bioMérieux on Sept 17. [Photo provided to Suzhou Bureau of Commerce]
A video conference took place on Sept 17 between representatives of the municipal government of Suzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province and bioMérieux – a French multinational vitro diagnostic company.
Xu Kunlin, Party secretary of Suzhou and Alexandre Mérieux, chairman and CEO of the bioMérieux, went online to discuss the French company's plans for the city.
In 2019, bioMérieux established Mérieux Biological Products Co Ltd, in order to build an Asia-Pacific production plant for its world-class in-vitro diagnostic product – blood culture bottles – which is scheduled to start operating in 2023.
Xu said that Suzhou was tapping the greatest ever opportunities coming from the Yangtze River Delta integration as well as the integration of Shanghai and Suzhou. Moreover, the city had strong comprehensive commercial strength capabilities and strong development momentum, with solid foundations in manufacturing and strong industry support capacity.
He said the biomedicines industry was the No 1 sector being targeted by Suzhou. "The bioMérieux project in Suzhou has broad development prospects. We look forward to further strengthening exchanges and interactions and deepening cooperation and friendship with bioMérieux," Xu said.
"Suzhou will strengthen its all-round services and create an optimal business environment for the development of oversea enterprises," he added.
French executive Alexandre Mérieux said Suzhou had a great commercial environment and was developing well. He said the bioMérieux headquarters would continue to support projects in Suzhou and use the city as a strategic springboard to expand into the China and Asia-Pacific markets.
The French group, which was founded more than 55 years ago, develops and produces in-vitro diagnostic solutions – such as diagnostic systems, reagents, software and services – for private and hospital laboratories, mainly for the diagnosis of infectious diseases.
The results obtained from patient samples – of blood, urine, stools, cerebrospinal fluid and saliva – are said to provide doctors with key information to support their decisions.