(Yicai Global) Jan. 17 -- Jiangsu Hengrui Medicine's Chairman Sun Piaoyang, the richest man in Chinese pharma and hailed for turning around the struggling former state-led firm, has announced his retirement from the leading role after marshaling the company for the past 30 years.

Zhou Yunshu, general manager, will take over the position, Hengrui said in a statement yesterday. The promoted 48-year-old has been working at the company since 1995 and been general manager for 17 years.

"Sun has been preparing to step down for years," a senior executive at the company told Yicai Global. He will stay on as a director and chair the company's strategy committee, which requires the firm to adjust its articles of association and permit somebody who is not the company chairman to fill the same role on the committee.

The 62-year-old is a media-shy legend in China's medical sector and is regularly praised for his commitment to research and development. His firm spent some CNY2.8 billion (USD408 million) on R&D in the first three quarters of 2019, equal to 17 percent of its operating income during the same period.

Investors appeared to welcome the change as Hengrui stock [SHA:600276] rose 4.9 percent to CNY90.66 (USD13.22) today, some 36 times larger than when it debuted in the year 2000 and Sun became its actual controller through a management buyout.

Sun took charge of Hengrui in 1990, when it was state-run Lianyungang Pharmaceutical and struggling to stay afloat. He leapt from technician to director and by shifting focus to the development of cancer drugs helped steer the company to success, all while amassing a personal wealth of around USD25.8 billion and making him China's fourth-richest man, according to Forbes.

Under his leadership, the company has gone from making active ingredients and generic medicines to innovative and complete drugs, and in 2017 it became the most valuable pharma firm on the Chinese mainland. It closed out today with a market cap of CNY400 billion (USD58 billion).

Editors: Tang Shihua, James Boynton