Tianjin's biopharmaceutical industry is improving and innovating, with better policies and more talent, according to the Industry and Information Technology Commission of Tianjin.

The commission says that the total production value of biopharmaceuticals in the city reached 56.4 billion yuan ($9.1 billion) in the first five months of the year, an increase of 14.31 percent.

The Tianjin government has approved a proposal on the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone (Tianjin FTZ), in which the city will develop manufacturing clusters, including biopharmaceuticals, when establishing research and development bases.

Another proposal, on the development of biopharmaceuticals in the coming three years, pointed out that the industry will reach 180 billion yuan ($29 billion) in 2017. By then, the city will have more than 100 biopharmaceutical categories with over 100 million yuan ($16.1 million) of total sales. Tianjin will establish the most important biopharmaceutical base in the country.

Tianjin has recently implemented preferential policies and launched professional investment foundations to optimize industrial development.

The city has also brought in high-end talent. The number of specialists from the "Recruitment Program of Global Experts" in biopharmaceutical areas takes up 40 percent of the city's total, and national institutions like the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences have cooperated with the city to launch research institutions.

Tianjin's biopharmaceutical industry has advantages in several areas. In the area of pharmaceutical chemicals, the amount of raw material declined, and chemicals with high added value increased. Many medicines sell well overseas.

Traditional Chinese medicine has sales in the domestic market and remains internationally competitive.

Sales of medical apparatus and instruments remain high, leading the domestic market. Tianjin's production of blood pressure meters ranked in the top of global market.

Tianjin is also home to the world's first base for umbilical cord stem cells and the world's first therapy based on stem cells. More than 40 categories in the industry has achieved annual sales of more than 100 million yuan ($16.11 million).

For the next step, the city will emphasize biopharmaceutical industries, especially the four major areas of medical instruments, biotechnology, drugs, and traditional Chinese medicine. The city will also cultivate emerging businesses such as big data.