Janssen Pharmaceutica - Janssen Pharmaceuticals in China

Janssen Pharmaceuticals in China

In 1985, Janssen Pharmaceuticals was the first Western pharmaceutical company to set up a pharmaceutical factory in the People's Republic of China (Xi'an). Already in 1983, Janssen had signed a cooperation contract to modernise products in an existing, but old, chemical factory in Hanzhong (in the province Shaanxi) and to produce the active compound of some Janssen products, such as mebendazole. Paul Appermont and Joos Horsten were responsible for the project.

In 1976 Paul Janssen had met the Lebanese-American doctor George Shafik Hatem (1912–1988) who was known in China under the name Ma Haide. Paul Janssen met with Ma Haide for three days in 1976, and decided to start a business in China right after the Cultural Revolution (1967–1976) and the opening to the west by Deng Xiaoping in 1978. The first factory was set up by Joos Horsten in Hanzhong, after which the second and larger factory followed in Xi'an.