On 30th April, President of IcelandH. E. Guðni Thorlacius Jóhannesson met with the delegation from Changchun New Area of Jilin Province of China at the President's Official Residence. The Chinese Ambassador to Iceland Jin Zhijian, Secretary of Party Working Committee of Changchun New Area Li Zhongbin, Chairman of Changchun High & New Technology Industries (Group) Inc. (or CCHN) Ma Ji, Founder of Alvotech of Iceland Robert Wessman attended the meeting.
President Jóhannesson welcomed the delegation's visit to Iceland, and extended his congratulations to the establishment of Joint Venture (JV) by Alvotech and CCHN in Changchun New Area. He pointed out that this project represented an ideal combination of Icelandic advanced technology and management experience in biopharmaceutical area with China, the world's second largest market, which would benefit both our two peoples and the world as well. He added that Iceland and China had already conducted effective cooperation in the areas such as geothermal energy and fishery. These indicated that win-win cooperation could be developed between big and small countries. He hoped that the two parties of JV would work hard together to ensure the success of the project.
Li Zhongbin expressed that each level of government departments of Changchun City and High & New Area had attached great importance to the project, and would make every effort to create the most favorable business environment for its construction, operation and development. Ma Ji and Robert briefed the latest development of the project and its future plan respectively.
Ambassador Jin met with the delegation on 29th of April at the Embassy.
According to the introduction, CCHN and Alvotech signed the cooperation Agreement, and decided to establish a joint venture in Changchun New Area, jointly engaging in R&D, manufacture and sale of high quality biosimilar products in China. The total amount of investment of the JV contracted at USD 200 million, with each side holding 50% of the shares. On 18th April of 2019, the groundbreaking ceremony of this JV project was held successfully in Changchun. It is expected that the first article of the JV's products will be marketed in 2022.