On the morning of June 15, 2023, colorful banners fluttered throughout the NORTHLAND pharmaceutical production base in Tongzhou. All management personnel of the NORTHLAND Group, representatives from the construction and supervision units, workers involved in the construction, and shareholder representatives lined up neatly to jointly celebrate the topping-out of the main structural framework. With the completion of the final concrete pour for the quality inspection building, the main structural frameworks of all three buildings in the biopharmaceutical industrialization project have been officially topped out, marking a major milestone in the construction of the company’s biopharmaceutical production base.

The project covers an area of 36,000 square meters and has a total construction area of 34,000 square meters. The first-phase plan includes the construction of a proprietary drug production workshop, warehouses, and a comprehensive building. The proprietary drug production workshop is a two-story structure with a construction area of 13,000 square meters and will primarily be responsible for the production of NL003 and NL005. The warehouse is also a two-story structure with a construction area of 4,000 square meters, comprising a frozen warehouse, a refrigerated warehouse, and a room-temperature warehouse, enabling automated three-dimensional storage. The comprehensive building is four stories above ground and one story below ground, with a total construction area of 17,000 square meters. It is mainly used for R&D, testing, and office functions, and is equipped with exhibition halls, a data center, and certain residential facilities.

Since the official commencement of construction on June 1, 2022, the project has steadily advanced through all stages—from blueprint planning and earthwork foundation laying to the completion of the main structural topping-out—without any major hitches. To ensure the overall construction schedule, the project team meticulously planned and implemented a “visualized management” approach, adopting a series of rigorous measures such as precise scheduling of construction processes and proactive procurement. Over the course of an entire year, the construction team actively overcame multiple challenges—including pandemic control measures, adverse weather conditions, and complex geological foundations—while consistently adhering to the principles of “safety first and quality first.” As a result, the initial blueprint was successfully and high-quality translated into reality, laying a solid foundation for the entire project. With the comprehensive topping-out of the building’s main structure, the project is now poised to move on to ancillary works, including exterior wall construction, mechanical and electrical installations, interior decoration, and minor municipal infrastructure within the plant area—marking another significant step toward the goal of project completion.

While actively organizing construction of the project, the company is simultaneously carrying out a variety of initiatives, including optimizing workshop process flows, selecting production equipment, and planning smart industrial parks. In accordance with both Chinese GMP and international GMP standards, the company will introduce advanced equipment and integrate digital and information technologies, aiming for continuous, automated, digitalized, and intelligent operations. This will enable the establishment of China’s first production base for naked plasmid gene therapy drugs, capable of manufacturing recombinant protein-based and antibody-based pharmaceutical products as well.

In his speech celebrating the occasion, Mr. Xu Songshan, Chairman of the company, expressed gratitude to all those involved in the construction project— including the general contractor, the supervision company, the project team members, and the construction workers—for their hard work and professionalism, which have laid a solid foundation for the development of the pharmaceutical base. He also emphasized that the biopharmaceutical production base shoulders the company’s critical mission of producing innovative biological drugs and serves as an important platform for translating R&D achievements into commercial production. He urged everyone to keep up the good work in the subsequent phases of the project, continue adhering to high standards, and strive toward zero accidents, high quality, and high efficiency, thereby creating a first-class project. He looks forward to the successful completion of the biopharmaceutical industrialization project, its smooth integration with the company’s commercial production of innovative drugs, and the realization of the company’s leapfrog development, thus contributing to the growth of the capital’s biopharmaceutical industry.