Multinational pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca plans to establish a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) industry innovation center in southwest China's Sichuan Province, according to local authorities.

AstraZeneca signed an online agreement with the Chengdu Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone to jointly launch the center that will incubate and empower the modern TCM industry, according to the zone.

The center integrates an academic-led research institution and platforms that offer TCM industry support, business modernization and clinical commercialization.

AstraZeneca settled its western China headquarters in the Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone in November 2020. The regional headquarters began operations in September last year.

The Chengdu Hi-Tech Zone has over 3,000 medical enterprises. In the first quarter of 2022, the industrial output and industrial added value of major medical and healthcare companies in the zone respectively rose 14.2 percent and 8 percent from the same period last year.

AstraZeneca entered China in 1993 and achieved a total revenue of 37.4 billion U.S. dollars worldwide in 2021, with 6 billion U.S. dollars coming from the Chinese market.

Headquartered in London, AstraZeneca focuses on the treatment of respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic, renal and digestive diseases.