Yesterday afternoon, Chen Jining, Mayor of Beijing, met with Vasant Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, a Switzerland-based company via video.

Chen thanked Novartis for its long-term support for Beijing. He mentioned that in recent years, Beijing kept to its strategic positioning as the capital, and implemented the Master Plan of Development for Beijing (2016-2035), accelerating the construction of a high-end, precision and cutting-edge economic structure for high-quality development. Rich in basic medical research and clinical resources, Beijing regards the pharmaceutical and health industry as an important engine for its innovative development. The city actively promotes the construction of research-oriented hospitals, and encourages and supports foreign-funded R&D centers to settle down and develop in Beijing by providing convenient R&D and innovation opportunities for multinational companies. Novartis stands firm in Beijing as an important partner. It is hoped that the company can tap into Beijing's advantages in science and technology innovation, and introduce more innovative drugs for R&D and production in Beijing, thereby enhancing its Beijing R&D center and expanding cross-sector cooperation in such fields as digital healthcare. Beijing will provide support for Novartis to expand investment and production in the city by ensuring high-quality services and digital cooperation channels, and will cooperate with Novartis to jointly explore the development path integrating healthcare with digital technology, so as to contribute to human health.

Narasimhan highly praised Beijing's achievement, noting that Novartis will increase its investment in Beijing, introduce more innovative drugs to Beijing, keep expanding production capacity and deepening digital medical cooperation to achieve mutual benefits.

Chen and Narasimhan also witnessed the signing of a framework agreement on strategic cooperation between the Changping District Government and Beijing Novartis Pharma.

Dai Binbin, Secretary-General of the Municipal Government, attended the meeting.

(Reporter: Yang Qi)