China National Pharmaceutical Group, the central State-owned enterprise responsible for the country's central medicine reserve, has been ramping up cooperation with other SOEs to help them deliver medical supplies to Hubei province, the most severely hit area by the novel coronavirus epidemic in China.

Also known as Sinopharm, it is the largest healthcare company in China and has a nationwide logistics and distribution network for drugs and medical devices and equipment.

By the end of Feb 25, the company's subsidiaries have delivered a large quantity of medical supplies a batch of central SOEs donated, including 244,000 pieces of protective clothing and isolation gowns, 1.62 million N95 and medical masks, 157,000 isolation masks for the eyes or face, 20,000 medical caps, 87,000 pairs of medical gloves and 20 tons of sterilizer.

Sinopharm Group Hubei Co Ltd, located in Wuhan, has the largest and most advanced medical logistics hub in Central China, and its employees have been working around the clock to distribute more than 1.2 million protective gowns, 20 million masks and 6 million packs of medicine into Hubei province since Jan 21. It also designated a special working area and speeded up work procedures for medical supplies donated by central SOEs, to ensure their timely use in the fight against the epidemic.

China National Medicines Co Ltd,Sinopharm's subsidiary principally engaged in the distribution of pharmaceutical products, established a working mechanism to coordinate communication and cooperation between the front line, SEOs donating medical supplies and transportation authorities and companies to ensure medical supplies purchased overseas are transported to Hubei province as quickly as possible. At present, many of the supplies were delivered to the front line within 15 hours after arriving in Beijing, with some taking only 11 hours.