The drug discovery project entitled "National first-class new medicine—Antofloxacin Hydrochloride" received 2017 National Technical Invention second prize at the National Science and Technology award ceremony in Beijing on Jan. 8, 2018.

The project was led by professor YANG Yushe from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM) of Chinese Academy of Sciences, who conducted the project with SIMM colleagues in cooperation with Anhui Globe Pharmaceutical Co., LTD.

The drug, Antofloxacin Hydrochloride is China's first new medicine with independent intellectual property rights since 1993. As a new antibacterial drug, it has outperformed the existing similar agents with better antibacterial activity, improved metabolism properties, much less cardiotoxicity and almost no phototoxicity.

By the end of 2016, Antofloxacin Hydrochloride had entered 150 hospitals and medical institutions in 22 provinces and municipalities and was included in the medical insurance medicine list in more than ten of these areas.

Prof. YANG Yushe at the 2017 National Science and Technology Ceremony. (Image by anonymity)

（Credit：XUE Yaru）