The northwestern Chinese company has developed the technology of extracting active ingredients from the urine of pregnant horses, to produce estrogen. The biological technology had been dominated by a US company for 60 years.
"It took three years for us to develop the technology, and we are now producing estrogen in the forms of API, creams and sustained release tablets." Gao Xiaoli, general manager of Xinziyuan Biopharmaceutical told Interfax.
The company received a GMP certificate for the production of estrogen by the end of last year, and put the drug into production at the beginning of this year.
"We have launched the estrogen products in all the 17 hospitals above grade two in Xinjiang, and we are stepping up marketing efforts in other parts of China," Gao said.
Xinziyuan Biopharmaceutical is marketing the drug in China through the sales channels of its parent company, Xinjiang Tefeng Pharmaceutical Ltd, the flagship pharmaceutical company in Xinjiang. "We expect to achieve RMB 1 bln (USD 125 mln) sales revenue in China in five years' time."
Meanwhile, Xinziyuan Biopharmaceutical has turned its attentions towards the international market. "We are exporting estrogen to European countries in small quantities now, and we are in talks with some companies from South Korea and USA for cooperation," Gao said.
The company plans to produce 7.5 tons of estrogen, 100 mln estrogen tablets and 3 mln tubes of estrogen cream in a year.
Xinjiang is a major pasturing area in China, and the Yili Autonomous Prefecture of Xijiang has 10 mln mu (666,667 hectares) of pasture and 100,000 horses.
In 2004, Tefeng Pharmaceutical invested RMB 82.6 mln (USD 10.33 mln) to establish an estrogen production base in Xinyuan County in Yili Autonomous Prefecture.
Tefeng Pharmaceutical has set up 10 collection stations in Xinyuan county. Currently, Tefeng is collecting urine form 1500 horses at the price of RMB 3.5 (USD 0.44) per kg.
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