"Fortune Favors the Deligent" is the classical expression of traditional Chinese philosophy, those practicing its core value succeed. At the era of agrarian civilization, diligence is the attribute of peasants, sowing seeds in the spring and harvest in the autumn after hard work. After entering the commercial times, the essence of "Fortune Favors the Deligent" remains the same. "Diligence" serves as the ladder of reaching life dreams and harvesting substantial wealth. Nowadays, it is the client who rewards our hard work and determine how much we harvest rather than the nature. The clients and market are changing all the time. Since Tofflon's foundation in 1993, she has been upholding the doctrine "Fortune Favors the Diligent" for more than 30 years, and Tofflon's three strategies are coming into reality step by step under its guidance, and Tofflon has achieved mutual benefits with our customers in the past 30 years. The glorious journey of Tofflon can be divided into three independent ten years. Each ten years we encountered different challenges, and our diligence focuses on different aspects, absolutely, Tofflon realized mutual reciprocity with our clients in each ten years.

The Early Days of Tofflon

In 1993, the east of China - Shanghai, an private enterprise was born. Zheng Xiaodong, who ever worked in a state-owned enterprise, started his lifetime career in a small institute in Minhang district. At that time, no one had ever thought that Tofflon, by virtue of the tenacity of “Fortune Favors the Deligent”, could achieve such glorious achievements and reach today's status, and making contributions to the progress of China's pharmaceutical equipment industry.

Tofflon distingushed herself from other enterprises. In the advancement of biopharmaceutical industry, Tofflon achieved harmonious development with it, and in the future days to come, Tofflon would make more progresses. 

At the forefront of the times, looking back, with the courage of startups and  the precious harvest we possess, which have been turned into treasures, deeply hidden in Tofflon's spiritual culture. Looking ahead, we are confident, and would like to work together with China's pharmaceutical equipment industry and create the next glorious 30 years, 50 years, 100 years ......

 Tofflon Rises Under the Comprehensive Reform and Opening Up

In 1992,  after Deng Xiaoping's Talks in the South, China comprehensively carried out reform and opening up to promote modernization of socialism. The last round of reform and opening up was mainly in the Pearl River Delta; this time, the Yangtze River Delta, led by Shanghai, stood at the forefront. The term “entrepreneurship” had also become popular among government institutions, enterprises and public organizations. The craze for entrepreneurship and business is once again sprouting and booming. Many people chose to venture into the business world and embrace a completely new life. Zheng, head of the equipment section of Shanghai Biochemical Pharmaceutical Factory, was one of the entrepreneurial army. Born in 1964, Zheng's zodiac is the dragon. After graduating from the Chemical Machinery Department of the Shanghai Institute of Applied Science and Technology (SIAST), he joined the profitable  state-owned enterprise. Probably under the influence of his grandparents who immigrated to Shanghai in the early years, the word “diligence” was deeply rooted in Zheng's heart, and six years after graduation he became the head of the equipment section. This was a very enviable position in the state-owned enterprises at that time.

Zheng's Younger Days

Looking back, Zheng was nostalgic for the tough entrepreneurial experience and the fighting times. As the head of the equipment section, Zheng had been working with lyophilizers for 9 years, and he was quite clear with the production process and operations of  lyophilizers. However, manufacturing lyophilizer is totally different from using it, and independant manufacturing would be a unprecedented challenge for him. Embarked on an entrepreneurial journey,  Zheng could not predict whether it will be a promising market in the future or not, one thing for sure is  that the production process of lyophilizer is really consummate and mysterious, less people know lyophilizers, not to mention the lyophilization curve.They also did not expect the application in  TCM and antimicrobials - the earliest lyophilizers were used for biochemical medicines, and many of them were extracted from animal offal, which all went bad once the temperature is high.

Entrepreneurship is extremely tough at the start. At the beginning, Tofflon could only survive by fine repairment of lyophilizers from different countries. At that time, an imported lyophilizer was in malfunction, and the foreign supplier gave a quotation of 20,000 euros to find a company that can repair it within 10 months. Tofflon took over the task by chance, after careful investigation, the machine was successfully repaired by changing only one seal ring, which made the name of Tofflon deeply etched in customers' mind, thus laying a foundation for her rise.

                      the 509 Institute                                           the Flatbed Cargo Tricycle in Early Days        

Since 1994, Tofflon was located  at a satellite research institute named 509, a small renting room in a factory. It was here where the first Tofflon lyophilizer was manufactured. At that time, it's not  easy for Tofflon to get orders, and Zheng's simplest wish was to manufacturing high-quality lyophilizers and sell it! After all, there were so many workers have to support their families, survival was the top priority. Now the first lyophilizer has been decommissioned, from the photo, without exquisite outlook, just a variety of spare parts were disorderly presented  in front of people.

     Early Lyophilizer by Tofflon                                Group Photo of Early Tofflon Staffs

The early staffs of Tofflon were all delighted in talking about the early days of the entrepreneurship.  It was very common to work all night long. Sometimes, the team members slept beside the machine,  when they worked overtime at night, they had fast food and gathered around the condenser while solving technical problems, but no one complained. On weekends, Tofflon staffs spontaneously went to small restaurants and ordered simple food, they encouraged each other with smile. In this way, everyone in Tofflon united together to serve the customers and manufacture the best lyophilizers regardless of fatigue, with full anticipation, Tofflon was known for her conscientiousness and diligence from then on.

the Chinese Ink Brushdrawing in Zheng's Office

Since the mid-1990s, China's pharmaceutical industry had undergone unprecedented changes. Under the strict international requirements for pharmaceutical certification, GMP standards were introduced to China in 1998, having beening working on site for years, Zheng was very sensitive to the changes in the pharmaceutical market, and he found many opportunities in the new GMP standards.

From Zheng's side, lyophilizer industry is extremely systematic, and aseptic technology is an important part of it. Zheng reconsidered the relationship between GMP, asepsis and Tofflon, then another turning point in his life came. The implementation of the new version of GMP regulations, this policy changed the trajectory of the entire pharmaceutical equipment industry, the national pharmaceutical plant equipment upgrading and iteration enabled Tofflon's sales exceeded ten million dollars for the first time.

the Grand Offline Ceremony of the Lyophilizer

After the total sales surpassed  ten million yuan, Tofflon didn't stop and aimed at the overseas market quickly. The facts proved that  Zheng's persistence on technological innovation could help accurately grasp the development trend of pharmaceutical equipment.

At an exhibition in Germany, Team Tofflon carefully studied the functions of lyophilizers, and held meetings at night to study the technical problems, discussing the possible functions of the lyophilizer in the future, and then Tofflon produced the first LYO series (SIP/CIP) lyophilizer with automatic cleaning and sterilization functions in China.

The history proved Zheng's foresight once again: domestic laws and regulations became increasingly sound, and automatic cleaning and sterilization became the standard of lyophilizers, Tofflon's lyophilizers occupied the domestic market overnight. The outbreak of SARS in 2003 advanced the development of new drug production line, and the demand for new production equipment boomed for the second time, thus Tofflon reached a hundred million dollars of sales in that year.

Plan the Layout and Bear the Great Mission of Industrial Upgrade

“Entrepreneurship is really amazing. The top priority is survival before we reach 100 million sales, and after that Tofflon strats to make big stries forward with great talents and opportunities.” Zheng said  later.

Zheng Xiaodong, the Chairman of Tofflon Group    

In 2003, in the domestic pharmaceutical equipment users were Chinese pharmaceutical enterprises only, the foreign capital, sino-foreign joint venture pharmaceutical companies usually chose foreign equipment, Tofflon once again became the industry model - establishing cooperative relationships with GSK, Merial and other pharmaceutical companies, which was a really inspiring start, China's pharmaceutical equipments successfully entered the foreign market.

Tofflon's internationalization processes are mainly realized in three aspects: first, the international export volume is no less than the domestic market, at present, Tofflon's export volume has reached 20% of the total sales, and the expansion of the foreign market has been increasing; second, in order to form an inclusive corporate culture and become a real international prestigious brand, the foreign staff share should be no less than 20%; third, becoming one of the suppliers recognized by global mainstream pharmaceutical companies and renowned enterprises. Based on the development strategies, Tofflon experienced the first fifteen years of hard work, from freeze-drying machine to freeze-drying systematic transformation, becoming the first leading domestic pharmaceutical equipment service provider whose export volume surpassing 100 million U.S. dollars.

Tofflon embarked on the new chapter of systematization and internationalization ......

Shenzhen Stock Exchange Listed

In March 2008, Tofflon turned into a joint stock limited company, with a net asset of 99.01 million RMB converted into 60 million share capital, and after entering the capital market in 2011, the share capital increased to 80 million. On February 1, 2011, Tofflon entered the A-shares market with a high issue price of 86 yuan per share, becoming the first listed company in China's pharmaceutical equipment industry.

Subsequently, as the forerunner,Tofflon keeps making big strides forward. From the lyophilization single machine successfully broke through the foreign automatic feeding and discharging technology, and successively completed the upstream and downstream product lines, including liquid dispensing, filling, light inspection, packaging of the whole line through.

In 2013, after several years of accumulation and growth, Tofflon officially became the first pharmaceutical machinery industry enterprise exceeding 1 billion sales in China. In the past decades, the history of Tofflon's growth is also the epitome of China's pharmaceutical equipment, from backwardness and  impovershment in the beginning, to today's brilliant achievements. China also turned into a great nation with considerable industrial scale and a complete range of pharmaceutical machinery. Through the internal and external extension and upstream and downstream integration, China's pharmaceutical equipment industry market share as well as the entire industry concentration is constantly improving, and has made remarkable achievements. Through the continuous enhancement of centralization, China's pharmaceutical equipment industry will turn from high-speed growth stage to high-quality development stage, and achieving substaintial development.

Fortune Favors the Diligent and Tofflon Shoulders Social Responsibilities

After the outbreak of the Covid-19 in the Spring Festival of 2020, Tofflon Group actively shouldered the responsibility of the nation and the society. During the tough time of the epidemic, Tofflon and her employees always rushed to the frontline to fight against the epidemic. At that time, the research and development and progress of the new 2019-nCoV vaccine had always been a matter of close attention for mankind, and the development of the new 2019-nCoV vaccine in China brought hope to people.

On the 5th day of the Chinese Lunar New Year in 2020, Beijing Institute of Biological Products issued a special order to Tofflon: an unconventional task for the core process equipment for the production of the new 2019-nCoV vaccine. At that time, Tofflon was very clear about the urgency and honor of this task, and Tofflon has developed an extraordinary will, tacit teamwork, and solid and reliable technical skills in the course of several real battles!

Being conscious of the severity of the epidemic, the Team Tofflon stayed highly active. The sooner the vaccine production line was completed, the sooner our people could stay away from the shadow of the epidemic. Han Jun, the general manager in charge of the raw liquid configuration equipment of Beisheng Institute said later, “the new 2019-nCoV vaccine project is extremely important, and we can only succeed.” “The pickling and passivation process stage is somewhat dangerous, and you can't doze off at all, and the team consisted of several engineers didn't sleep for 36 hours!” This is a true practice of the core value of “Fortune Favors the Diligent”.

The comprehensive design was completed within 10 days, and the production, installation, commissioning of the entire project were finished within 45 days, the second phase of the order in September, hundreds of liquid distribution tanks, equipments, but also within 2 months to complete all. Domestic work resumption as well as the supply chain was difficult to be guaranteed at that time, under the circumstance, Tofflon integrated all the resource to ensure the progress, the staffs worked overtime all night, raced against time, only to shoulder the responsibilities.

Many Tofflon employees worked around the clock. As a technician of the 2019-nCoV vaccine project of Beijing Institute of Biological Products, Li Xia, a southerner, was really afraid of the cold in Beijing, and there was no heating in the pharmaceutical factory when she went there, so Li Xia and her colleagues just wrapped up a thick cotton jacket to work overtime all night, and when they were tired, they just leaned against the wall in the corner to rest for a little while, and they worked continuously for 11 days and slept for only two or three hours every day, finally completed the FAT successfully. Tofflon had lived up to the high expectations of our customer as well as the Party and the country. In addition to Sinopharm national vaccine & serum institute's new 2019-nCoV vaccine, Tofflon had demonstrated “Chinese speed” and the integration of localized equipment to the world in many application scenarios globally, such as Chengdu Westvac recombinant protein process route 2019-nCoV vaccine project, inactivated vaccine project of  Sinovac Biotech Ltd. mRNA process route vaccine project of Suzhou ABOGEN, and the new 2019-nCoV vaccine project of Russia's R-PHARM Satellite 5, etc. Tofflon also demonstrated the strong service capability of the Chinese localized equipment integration service provider. In 2020, Tofflon greatly impressed China and even the world in the history of the development of pharmaceutical equipment.

In 2020, Tofflon received the letter of thanks from the United Front Department of the Shanghai Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), Tofflon was praised for her contributions during the epidemic. In September, Shanghai Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government awarded Tang Huixing, Vice President and Secretary of the Party Committee, with the honorary title of “Shanghai Advanced Individual in Fighting against the New Crown Epidemic”.

In 2021, China Association for Vaccines issued the “Decision on the Notification and Commendation of Groups and Individuals with Outstanding Performance in the Fight Against the Epidemic (the First Batch)”, in which Shanghai Tofflon Technology Co. Ltd. was awarded the honorary title of “Outstanding Performance Anti-epidemic Group”, and Hu Jianjun, the Program Manager of Shanghai Tofflon Science and Technology Co. Ltd. 

In the “Decision on Commending the Groups and Individuals with Outstanding Performance in the Anti-epidemic Work (the Second Batch)” issued on May 30, Cheng Jinsheng and Huang Feng, General Managers of Tofflon Life Science and Technology Co.ltd. were awarded the honorary title of “Individuals with Outstanding Performance in the Anti-epidemic Work”.

At present, China is providing vaccine assistance to 80 countries and 3 international organizations around the world, while exporting vaccines to more than 40 countries and cooperating with over 10 countries in vaccine R&D and production. Every time we see Tofflon's logo in the CCTV report, and the new  2019-nCoV vaccine produced by Chinese pharmaceutical factories using the equipment provided by China National Pharmaceutical Equipment Corporation being exported to the domestic and overseas market, all the Tofflon staffs feel highly proud and honored.

Adhering to the mission of professional technology to serve human health, Tofflon responded without hesitation and resolutely implements the key speeches and instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping on epedemic prevention and control, played an active role in the battle, and earnestly fulfilled the social responsibilities.

In the future, Tofflon will, as in the past, continue to make efforts and uphold the spirit of "Fortune Favors the Diligent ", and shoulder social responsibility actively and make contributions in major public health, finally bring an end to the global epidemic as soon as possible.

Collective Efforts Lead to a Promising Future

Nowadays, Tofflon, focusing on "the next-generation pharmaceutical manufacturing platform", is a total solution provider for process science research and smart plant design capability. While making progress, Tofflon has configurated and developed two major sections, namely, Medical Equipment and Food Engineering, and now Tofflon has achieved brilliant accomplishment. This demonstrates the excellence and advancement of China's pharmaceutical equipment enterprises, we can not only advancing our pharmaceutical industry technology, but also achieving mutual progress with other industries!

May 2022｜Tofflon