Wenling's First! Wanbande Pharmaceutical Selected as a National-Level Model Academician & Expert Workstation

On December 3, the China Association for Science and Technology released the list of exemplary academician and expert workstations for 2018. Notably, the Academician and Expert Workstation established by Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. in our city was successfully selected, making it the first in our city—and the second in Taizhou City—to earn the title of a national-level exemplary workstation. As a result, Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Group will receive a municipal talent funding award of 500,000 yuan.

In July 2002, Wanbangde Group acquired Wenling Pharmaceutical Factory, a state-owned enterprise with over 30 years of history, and restructured it into Wanbangde Pharmaceutical. Over the past decade-plus, Wanbangde Pharmaceutical has grown into a high-tech group enterprise specializing in the research, development, production, and sales of modern Chinese medicines, chemical APIs, and their corresponding formulations. Today, the company holds 190 approved drug manufacturing licenses, covering 18 different dosage forms.

In November 2015, the Academician and Expert Workstation of Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Group Co., Ltd. was officially established with a plaque ceremony, making it the city’s fourth such workstation. Led by Tang Xican, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, PhD supervisor, and researcher at the Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, CAS, the team initiated technical research on the raw materials and formulations for huperzine A, a drug targeting Alzheimer’s disease. In May 2017, the workstation was recognized as a provincial-level Academician Expert Workstation.

Tang Xican has dedicated over 50 years to the discovery of bioactive compounds from traditional Chinese medicine that target the nervous system, as well as to elucidating their underlying mechanisms of action. In 2001, he was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. He has made significant contributions to the development of novel drugs for treating neurological disorders in China, particularly Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive impairments. Working closely with plant chemists, he successfully pioneered the development of active ingredients such as galantamine and huperzine A, which are now used clinically to treat conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, myasthenia gravis, and chronic pain. Notably, he was among the first to report huperzine A’s potent, highly selective inhibition of acetylcholinesterase—and also the first to highlight its multifaceted neuroprotective effects, including antioxidant properties and the ability to mitigate mitochondrial dysfunction. Under his leadership, his research team has published more than 200 peer-reviewed papers in prestigious international and domestic academic journals. Among these, the groundbreaking studies on huperzine A have been featured in 68 articles across leading scientific publications both domestically and internationally. His research achievements have also earned him 3 domestic invention patents and 4 international patents.

After establishing the Academician and Expert Workstation, Wanbangde Pharmaceutical signed a cooperation agreement with Academician Tang Xican’s expert team, clearly outlining the rights and responsibilities of both parties and detailing the mechanisms for sharing research outcomes, ensuring smooth collaboration between the company and the academician-expert team.

The Academician and Expert Workstation is located at the Wanbangde Pharmaceutical Technology Center. The company has equipped the workstation with 13 full-time R&D technical staff and 1 dedicated workstation manager. It features a 40-square-meter office for the academician and experts, along with over 2,000 square meters of experimental space, including a chemical synthesis lab, a pilot-scale workshop, a formulation lab, and an analytical center. Additionally, the facility is outfitted with R&D instruments and equipment valued at more than 20 million yuan.

Under the leadership of Tang Xichan, the innovation team and the supporting team jointly tackled key challenges by focusing on pharmacological and efficacy studies of synthetic huperzine A raw material and huperzine A intramuscular injection. They successfully developed critical technologies for these areas, providing essential scientific evidence for the review and approval process of huperzine A injection and resolving several technical bottlenecks. Notably, their research on the pharmacology and efficacy of both the synthetic huperzine A raw material and the huperzine A intramuscular injection culminated in the issuance of China's first production license for an original huperzine A injection on July 31 of this year. Additionally, their work on the development of controlled-release huperzine A tablets resulted in a national invention patent, followed by the receipt of clinical trial approval from the National Medical Products Administration in June of this year.

In 2017, Wanbangde Pharmaceutical's huperzine A product generated sales revenue of 10.757 million yuan, accounting for 2.37% of the company's total revenue. This contributed a profit of 3.413 million yuan and resulted in tax payments of 2.194 million yuan.

On November 18, 2018, a clinical positioning expert seminar for Shishan Alkaloid Injection was held in Beijing. Wanbangde Pharmaceutical hopes that through this seminar, the company can identify an appropriate clinical focus, paving the way for post-marketing re-evaluation and the exploration of new therapeutic indications. This initiative aims to further promote the outstanding scientific achievements of this uniquely Chinese drug—whose intellectual property rights are entirely owned by the company—and ultimately elevate its global reputation. At the same time, the event will strengthen the company’s ability to innovate independently, driving the commercialization of cutting-edge research outcomes into practical applications.

(News source: Wenling Daily)