French pharmaceutical company Sanofi signed a cooperation agreement with the Management Committee of Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone in southwest China's Sichuan Province to establish its Operation and Innovation Center.

As a major component of the facility, Sanofi will also launch a Global R&D Operations Hub in Chengdu with a specialized focus on digitalization and big data analysis.

The new R&D Operations Hub confirmed China as the third pillar of Sanofi Global Clinical Sciences and Operations, joining facilites in France and the United States.

With a total investment of 500 million yuan (about 75 million U.S. dollars), the Chengdu hub will support Sanofi's drug development by managing global multi-center clinical trial data and files.

The hub will recruit 300 local pharmaceutical R&D professionals by 2020 to take advantage of innovative local talent and further strengthen Sanofi's digital capabilities.

Sanofi China, established in 1982 with headquarters in Shanghai, has a wide range of businesses covering pharmaceuticals and human vaccines. At the end of 2016, Sanofi had over 9,500 employees in China.

The Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial development Zone is one of the largest biopharmaceutical industry zones in central and west China. The high-tech zone has attracted more than 1,500 domestic and overseas biology-related companies with employees exceeding 35,000 as of 2017.