(Yicai Global) Dec. 10 -- Brightgene Bio-Medical Technology plans to invest CNY348 million (USD49 million) on a new pharmaceuticals factory capable of making drugs to American and European standards as it looks to start selling finished medicines overseas.

Brightgene will build the 24 acre production base in its hometown's Suzhou Industrial Park and expects to complete construction in two years, it said in a statement yesterday. It will use its own cash and bank loans to fund the facility, borrowing no more than CNY250 million.

The 2001-founded firm mostly makes money overseas by supplying partners with active pharmaceutical ingredients and intermediates; such as teaming up with Germany's Selectchemie to sell caspofungin acetate in Europe in 2016. It hopes the new facility will allow it to sell preparations, or finished drugs, overseas without aid.

Brightgene has formed a mature business model for its pharmaceutical intermediates and API business, it said, adding that it has the talent, tech and product development chops to start selling preparations.

The plan will make a range of inoculations that meet requirements set by the US Food and Drug Administration and European Union's Current Good Manufacturing Practices standards for fungal, thrombotic, iron deficiency and tumor treatments. Caspofungin acetate, an antifungal medicine, racked up sales of USD259 million in the US and USD23 million in Europe last year.

The company had 202 research and development workers as of late March, making up more than a third of its workforce.  It has two approved drugs in China, an anticoagulant and an acid reflux treatment, and a long pipeline of treatments awaiting the regulator's nod.

Editor: James Boynton