Staff at the Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Corporation package pharmaceuticals for export. [Photo by Guo Ping/dtnews.cn]

The pharmaceutical industry has seen rapid growth in the Datong Economic and Technological Development Zone.

Pharmaceutical enterprises in the zone have won a variety of honorary titles and key projects, including a pharmaceutical industrial base supported by China's Torch Program, an entrepreneurial program promoted by the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the pilot zone for Shanxi industrialization.

As of this year, the total pharmaceutical output in the zone is 2.9 billion yuan ($470 million), with a taxation of 292 million yuan. The zone's industry giant, Sinopharm Weiqida Pharmaceutical Corporation, has exported $100 million's worth of drugs, 83 percent of the city's foreign trade quota. Its products are consumed in more than 20 countries and territories, such as India, the UK and Egypt.