An external view of the office building of the industrial heritage of Southwest No 3 Pharmaceutical Factory [Photo/sinopharm.com]

The industrial heritage of Southwest No 3 Pharmaceutical Factory is located in Shapingba district, Chongqing. Its predecessor is the former Central Pharmaceutical Factory & Anesthetics Management Office, which was established in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, in 1928 and relocated to Chongqing during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). 

It was renamed Southwest No 3 Pharmaceutical Factory in February 1965 and Southwest Pharmaceutical Co Ltd in 1992. The company became the second-listed pharmaceutical enterprise in China in 1993. 

In 2002, it was merged into Chongqing Taiji Industry (Group) Co Ltd, and in 2021, integrated into China National Pharmaceutical Group Co Ltd, ushering in a new chapter in development. 

The workshops of the factory were established in the 1960s, with the design of the injection and tablet workshops finished in 1958, and the construction of the workshops and supporting facilities completed in the 1960s. These were the company's first exclusive pharmaceutical workshops. 

In addition, the company completed the design of the main building of its penicillin powder injection workshop in 1970, which finished construction in 1972. The building is still in use, with an annual output of 50 million bottles of powder injections. 

In 1980, the design of the main building of the large infusion workshop wrapped up. The building started construction in 1982 and was put into production in 1985. 

Today, Southwest Pharmaceutical is still using the industrial heritage of the factory for pharmaceutical production.

Since the 1980s, the workshops have undergone multiple Good Manufacturing Practice, or GMP, renovations, while the main structure of the heritage site is well-preserved, with most facilities still in use. 

In December 2022, the industrial heritage of the factory was approved as part of the second batch of industrial heritage in Chongqing.