A view of the booth of Yunnan Baiyao Group during an expo in Shanghai. CHINA DAILY

Yunnan Baiyao Group, a century-old pharmaceutical brand based in Southwest China's Yunnan province, continues to thrive by deeply investing in traditional Chinese medicine while strategically expanding into innovative pharmaceuticals.

On the company's smart production lines, its flagship product, Yunnan Baiyao Aerosol, designed to gently improve blood circulation and relieve pain, swelling, and blood stasis, is efficiently produced at a rate of 120 boxes per minute, according to Yang Xiaoling, director of the liquid preparation unit at Yunnan Baiyao Group's manufacturing and operations center.

According to its 2025 annual report recently released by the company, aerosol product sales revenue exceeded 2.5 billion yuan ($360 million) for the year, representing an increase of over 22 percent, while plaster product sales revenue surpassed 1.2 billion yuan, rising by more than 26 percent.

The company raked in 41.19 billion yuan in operating revenue in 2025. Its net profit attributable to shareholders reached 5.15 billion yuan, an increase of 8.51 percent year-on-year, while the net profit attributable to shareholders, excluding nonrecurring items, rose to 4.87 billion yuan, up 7.55 percent, setting a new record, according to the annual report.

In recent years, the company has been dedicated to preserving and innovating traditional Chinese medicine.

In 2025, the company invested 423 million yuan in research and development, a notable increase of 21.51 percent from the previous year. This investment accounted for 2.64 percent of revenue, highlighting a steady improvement in R&D capabilities, said Wang Jingkun, Party secretary of the central research institute at Yunnan Baiyao Group.

Yunnan Baiyao is committed to integrating traditional Chinese medicine into daily life. In its health products sector, traditional remedies have been combined with oral care solutions to successfully develop a product line focused on toothpaste. The company continues to innovate by introducing other functional oral care products, such as whitening and anti-sensitivity options.

Meanwhile, the company is leveraging innovative drugs as the driving force for its transformation and upgrading.

The company established the central research institute and set up five major R&D centers in Kunming of Yunnan province, Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, and Wuxi of Jiangsu province, creating a collaborative framework for innovation across the entire traditional Chinese medicine industry chain and the development of innovative drugs.

Currently, R&D achievements are being rapidly implemented. The biological drug INB301 injection, designed for cancer cachexia, has been officially accepted by the Center for Drug Evaluation of the China National Medical Products Administration, and has been placed on the 30-day fast-track review and approval pathway for innovative drugs, said Wan Wuzhou, president of the central research institute at Yunnan Baiyao Group.

Contact the writers at yanyj@chinadaily.com.cn