A sweeping view of Biolake, the location of Mindray's new Wuhan R&D center. [Photo/WeChat account of Optics Valley of China]

Shenzhen Mindray Bio-medical Electronics Co -- China's largest medical device research and development and production company -- established its ninth R&D center in Wuhan East Lake High-tech Development Zone (Optics Valley of China), in Central China's Hubei province, on Dec 24.

Located in Biolake, Optics Valley of China's biotech industrial base, the R&D center will cover an area of 7.33 hectares, with an investment in fixed assets of 1.3 billion yuan ($185.7 million).

When finished, it will be equipped for biological raw materials and reagents R&D, surgical equipment R&D and big health technology R&D.

It will have global service support and engineering technology transformation departments and have a total staff of 2,000 employees, including 1,200 top R&D researchers.

To date, Mindray's products supply China's 110,000 medical institutions and over 90 percent of third grade hospitals -- the highest grade according to China's three-tier hospital grading system.

Headquartered in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, Mindray's current market value has topped 200 billion yuan and it posted sales revenue of 13.75 billion yuan in 2018.

In addition to Wuhan, Mindray has established R&D centers in Shenzhen, Beijing, Nanjing, Xi'an, Chengdu -- as well as in the United States' Silicon Valley, New Jersey and Seattle.

Officials said the establishment of the new R&D center is expected to attract more upstream and downstream companies involving the medical industry to Optics Valley of China -- and make medical equipment production a strong point of the zone.