From "Sea" to Yan Yiyi's 38 Years of Legends at the helm of Shanghai Chengyi Pharmaceutical

The story of the old man and the sea is always so thrilling and heartbreaking. Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" deeply ingrained the tough guy image of the fishing old man Santiago, and the capital market also shone with the never-ending "Santiago".

He is in his early years and has repeatedly led enterprises to overcome business difficulties. He still struggles at the forefront of the pharmaceutical industry and enterprise management to this day. He said, "People move forward under pressure and have passion. When faced with difficulties, I will definitely come up with ways to resolve them. That's where my skills lie." He is Yan Yiyi, Chairman of Chengyi Pharmaceutical.

Chengyi Pharmaceutical is located in Dongtou District, Wenzhou City, which is rich in marine resources. Yan Yiyi is keenly aware of the business opportunity of "living towards the sea". With the advantage of raw materials, Chengyi Pharmaceutical has vigorously developed marine green drugs. Nowadays, the company's main products, including arthritis medication, glucosamine hydrochloride preparations, and raw materials, occupy an important position in the domestic and international markets.

In March 2017, Chengyi Pharmaceutical was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, ushering in the A-share market as the "first stock of Wenzhou Pharmaceutical". Recently, Yan Yiyi said in an interview with Shanghai Securities News that he is ready to set sail again in the "ocean" of the capital market. The route he planned for the company is to follow the paths of marine medicine, biomedicine, and traditional Chinese medicine.

The predecessor of Chengyi Pharmaceuticals, Tongshan Pharmaceutical Factory, was founded in 1966. It has been 52 years since it became a leading enterprise in marine medicine in China, from a small workshop style military family factory with two large tanks. Since becoming the director of Tongshan Pharmaceutical Factory in 1980, Yan Yiyi has been at the helm of Chengyi Pharmaceutical for 38 years.

Yan Yiyi, born in 1949, is of the same age as the Republic. However, time did not seem to leave any traces of a seventy year old man on him. His loud voice, vigorous steps, and capable figure vividly remembered every important turning point in the company's history. He is both a witness and a guide.

In the 1970s, Tongshan Pharmaceutical Factory became a county owned collective enterprise after being transferred from the stationed troops to the local area. Due to improper management, the factory suffered losses for three consecutive years, so the county selected Yan Yiyi, who had previously worked at the military pharmaceutical factory, to serve as the factory director. As expected, the factory turned losses into profits in the first year after Yan Yiyi took over.

Yan Yiyi told reporters: "The problem with enterprise management at that time was that novices were not familiar with drugs after taking over the enterprise. In fact, drug production, quality is efficiency." Therefore, Yan Yiyi formulated a quality coefficient assessment method. If quality is not done well, both employees and cadres will not receive your salary. With quality, society will recognize it, and sales will have a way. To this day, Yan Yiyi still deeply understands that quality is the first benefit, not only economic benefits, but also social benefits.

In 1984, the country carried out the first major rectification and acceptance of pharmaceutical enterprises nationwide, once again putting factories at a critical juncture of life and death. According to Yan Yiyi, if the technological transformation fails, the factory cannot reproduction drugs, but the technological transformation needs to take great risks. Some factories have lost money for many years in a row, and some even go bankrupt. At that time, there was a saying that said, 'If we engage in technological transformation, we will die early, but if we don't, we will die soon.'. Recalling this experience, Yan Yiyi's tone became firm: "I know the risk, so I must find a way to expand production capacity in the first year, achieve small profits but quick sales, and ultimately achieve profits of several hundred thousand yuan, breaking the dilemma of not being profitable in the first year of technological transformation

The repeated challenges made Yan Yiyi firmly believe that people move forward under pressure and have passion. Yan Yiyi told reporters that in the face of pressure and challenges, he has only two ideas: first, face difficulties directly and not avoid them; The second is to think of some tricks to resolve it. Yan Yiyi smiled and said, "My skills are right here. I never felt like I would collapse, I won't collapse, I will definitely have a way to do it

The repeated challenges made Yan Yiyi firmly believe that people move forward under pressure and have passion. Yan Yiyi told reporters that in the face of pressure and challenges, he has only two ideas: first, face difficulties directly and not avoid them; The second is to think of some tricks to resolve it. Yan Yiyi smiled and said, "My skills are right here. I never felt like I would collapse, I won't collapse, I will definitely have a way to do it

In fact, the three meanings behind the name Chengyi Pharmaceutical also embody Yan Yiyi's entrepreneurial spirit and the company's unwavering corporate culture with unique craftsmanship. It is reported that this name was selected from over 70 names during the company's restructuring by brainstorming with employees. Yan Yi told reporters, "Choosing the brand 'Cheng Yi' is because the company has been committed to pharmaceutical production for decades and has always been doing it. Secondly, the company is wholeheartedly committed to producing good drugs and must have an explanation for society, reflecting the company's Cheng Yi and beliefs. Thirdly, I happen to have a 'Yi' character in my name, which can be considered a corporate name

People are like their names, so are businesses.

Targeting marine medicine

Yan Yiyi's fate with the sea may be destined. Chengyi Pharmaceutical is located in Dongtou District, Wenzhou City, which is rich in marine resources. It is one of the 12 island counties (districts) in China. Faced with the "gift of the sea", Yan Yiyi resolutely decided to "live towards the sea and rely on the sea to eat".

In recent years, Chengyi Pharmaceutical has focused on developing high-end small variety "marine green drugs" and "large disease drugs". The company's products involve arthritis, diuresis, calming and tonifying the brain, antiviral and anti-tumor, etc. The main products include glucosamine hydrochloride raw materials and preparations, gastrodin raw materials, ribavirin preparations and raw materials, azathioprine raw materials, etc. Among them, marine drug glucosamine hydrochloride is the company's main product. It is understood that glucosamine hydrochloride is prepared by hydrolysis of chitin, which is commonly extracted from crab and shrimp shells. Due to its light weight and large volume, it is not convenient for transportation. The company has utilized its location advantage to become the main raw material drug manufacturer of glucosamine hydrochloride in China, forming a certain advantage in the entire industrial chain.

Yan Yi introduced to reporters that the glucosamine hydrochloride extracted from crab shells and shrimp shells has a significant effect on treating chronic arthritis. In the osteoarthritis medication market, the average annual growth rate of glucosamine hydrochloride remains above 30%, making it a highly promising product. At present, Chengyi Pharmaceutical's glucosamine hydrochloride preparation (trade name: Weigu) ranks first in the domestic market share.

Since landing in the capital market for a year, the company's main products have continued to maintain a high growth momentum. According to the semi annual report, in the first half of this year, the company achieved a revenue of 252 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 69.25%; The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was RMB 45.012 million, a year-on-year increase of 49.8%. The company stated that the performance growth was mainly due to the strengthening of sales of key pharmaceutical products during the reporting period, continuous adjustments to the sales model of pharmaceutical products, resulting in an increase in sales of joint and vitamin products.

In fact, the rapid growth of pharmaceutical products cannot be separated from Yan Yiyi's adjustment of the company's business structure. He led the company on a green and healthy development path earlier. Since 2005, the main business structure of Chengyi Pharmaceutical has gradually shifted from raw materials accounting for 90% to formulations accounting for 52%. Yan Yiyi stated that in the next five years, the company will continue to increase the development of preparations and gradually achieve a business pattern where the proportion of preparations reaches 75%. In its view, there is a certain degree of pollution in the production of raw materials, and a development philosophy of Chengyi Pharmaceutical is the "three non hazards": not harming oneself, not harming the surrounding areas, and not harming future generations.

Chengyi Pharmaceutical raised 280 million yuan from its initial public offering, of which 190 million yuan was used for the technical renovation project of the preparation building. It is reported that the project is expected to complete an infrastructure project with a construction area of 59000 square meters by the end of this year, and will be put into operation in early 2019. At that time, the formulation building, research and development building, three raw material pharmaceutical workshops, logistics and supporting factories in the fundraising project will be put into use. After the completion of the raised investment project, the company will have an annual production capacity of 90 million ampoule small volume injections, 210 million tablets, 950 million capsules, and 120 million packets of granules, which can further enrich the company's product line and enhance the competitiveness of the company's products in the field of pharmaceutical preparations.

In the process of continuously accelerating the development of pharmaceutical products, continuing to deeply cultivate marine medicine is also an important direction for Chengyi Pharmaceutical. Yan Yi said to the reporter: "There are many promising articles in the sea. The company will continue to enrich the variety of marine pharmaceuticals." At present, the company has also reserved a number of products with marine organisms as raw materials in its research products, involving blood lipids, blood pressure, anti-tumor, and nervous system drugs for memory loss.

Three Centers Settled in Shanghai

Having developed on the island of Dongtou District, Wenzhou City for over 50 years, Yan Yiyi has a new dream: to lead Chengyi Pharmaceutical out of the "sea" and come to Shanghai. In March 2017, Chengyi Pharmaceutical was listed on the Shanghai Stock Exchange, ushering in the capital market as the "first stock of Wenzhou Pharmaceutical". Yan Yiyi said, "This is just the first step. In the future, we will shift our company's focus to Shanghai. We will truly achieve a leap from 'sea' to Shanghai

On June 19th of this year, with the company's marketing center, technology development center, and securities affairs center settling in Shanghai Hongqiao Fuli Center, Chengyi Pharmaceutical took a substantial step from "sea" to Shanghai. Yan Yiyi stated at the entry ceremony that after the "three major centers" settle in Shanghai, Chengyi Pharmaceutical will use this platform to attract more pharmaceutical commercial companies to join, attract elites and teams from both domestic and foreign countries to join, and first make breakthroughs in the transformation of marketing models.

The transformation of marketing models is evident in the neutral pole of the company's "transcript" after going public. Regarding how to maintain the sustainability of profitability, Yan Yiyi focuses on the layout of key products.

According to the strategic plan, Chengyi Pharmaceutical will focus on marine medicine, biomedicine and traditional Chinese medicine in the future, and its product research and development direction will continue to focus on new product marine medicine, elderly medicine, anti-tumor drugs, traditional Chinese patent medicines and simple preparations, anti infective drugs, digestive system and other fields. In the first half of this year, the company's tablet products such as Danyining tablets and sodium cholate tablets passed GMP certification and went on sale. Among them, Danyining tablets are the exclusive traditional Chinese medicine variety in China and are expected to become new profit growth points. At the same time, the company is also accelerating the consistency evaluation of key profitable varieties such as glucosamine hydrochloride capsules and tolasemide injection.

Yan Yiyi bluntly said, "We need to make these good drugs and push them into a larger market. After coming to Shanghai, the market will be wider, the vision will be wider, the transportation will be more convenient, the information will be more flexible, and the talent will be gathered. Our enterprise will also further grow." For Chengyi Pharmaceutical, this leap is not only a change in physical space, but also a qualitative leap in the company's development.

Yan Yiyi claims to be a hardworking worker and a pragmatic person. What will pragmatic people do? I will not excessively expand, nor will I expand quickly. I will step by step, and Chengyi Pharmaceutical will do a good job of the enterprise and provide a satisfactory return to the public, "said Yan Yiyi.

San Diego in "The Old Man and the Sea" is an unbeatable person, while the legendary story of Yan Yiyi and the "sea" in the capital market continues.