On September 14, Jiuzhitang Yonghe Qihang Fund initiated by the traditional Chinese medicine pharmaceutical company Jiuzhitang, signed an investment agreement with the US Stemedica Cell Technology Co., Ltd. ("Stemedica"). According to the agreement, Jiuzhitang Maker (Beijing) Cell Technology Co., Ltd. ("Jiuzhitang Maker") will introduce stem cell production technology and preparation platform of the world's top stem cell companies, and construction a commercial-grade stem cell production base that meets US and EU cGMP (Dynamic Drug Production Management Practices) standards in 3 to 5 years in Daxing Biomedical Industry Base in Beijing. Since then, Jiuzhitang has officially entered the field of stem cell drug research and development, clinical research and industrialization.

Li Zhenguo, chairman of Jiuzhitang, said that Jiuzhitang, base itself on the advantages of its own Chinese medicine industry, leverage the advantages of international stem cell technology, will focus on the field of regenerative medicine, and strive to combine traditional Chinese medicine with stem cell frontier biotechnology to create an innovation road of a China's old pharmaceutical company.

According to Li Zhenguo, Jiuzhitang Maker will cooperate with top hospitals in China to conduct multi-center clinical trials. Based on Stemedica's good clinical trial results, it plans to conduct stem cell clinical research on nervous system and cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases. At the same time, Jiuzhitang Maker also signed a cooperation agreement with Mexico's Novastem Cell Technology and Kazakhstan's ALTACO Cell Technology to jointly establish an internationalized stem cell research and development platform.

Stem cells, also known as origin cells and universal cells, are a group of primitive cells with self-renewal, high proliferation and multi-directional differentiation potential, and are progenitor cells that can differentiate into various tissues and organs. It has the characteristics of self-renewal, differentiation potential, low immunogenicity and good tissue fusion, and is called “universal cells” by the medical community.

Stem cell technology and development have been popular in the capital market in recent years. In the listed companies listed on NASDAQ, the market value of stem cell concept stocks exceeds 30 billion US dollars. According to the "2018 China Stem Cell Medical Industry Analysis Report - Market Depth Analysis and Development Prospects Research" report, in 2018, the global stem cell medical market has reached 98.5 billion US dollars. According to the statistics of the Ministry of Health, at present, the market size of China's stem cells exceeds 40 billion yuan, and the compound growth rate in 2009-2016 is over 50%.

In recent years, China has continued to strengthen its investment and layout in terms of stem cell basis and transformation. It has listed stem cells as the 2017 national key R&D plan, and in the “13th Five-Year National Science and Technology Innovation Plan” and “National Innovation Driven Development Strategy Outline”. Stem cell research has been listed as a key support area in a number of policies such as the National Standardization System Construction and Development Plan and the 13th Five-Year Plan for Health and Health Science and Technology Innovation.