Editor’s Note: “Every drug can be made and every disease can be treated”. Over the past 25 years, from a single laboratory to a global network spanning Asia, Europe, and North America; from early chemical synthesis services to an integrated platform that connects Research (R), Development (D), and Manufacturing (M); from its very first customer to thousands of partners across more than 30 countries, WuXi AppTec has never stopped moving forward to realize its enduring vision. 

In tribute to the journey and in celebration of new beginnings, we look back through the eyes of our “dream-makers”: revisiting the stories of partnership that empowered global innovation, and the unique spirit that continues to guide us toward the next chapter.

On July 12, 2001, a young chemist named Feng Zhang walked through the gate of a brand-new company called WuXi AppTec.

A few weeks earlier, he had finished an interview filled with quick chemistry questions from the founders. Now, he stood in a small lab that smelled faintly of chemicals and excitement.

By chance, his first task that very afternoon was to appear in the company’s first employee video. No one could have anticipated that this quiet man in the background would one day lead WuXi AppTec’s API manufacturing, a core part of its global platform that now stretches across three continents.

The First Reactions

Back then, WuXi AppTec was a small company, but one filled with energy and eagerness. Every week, the founders gathered a few chemists to discuss how to “make the reaction run cleaner,” or “deliver faster.”

Zhang remembers the distinctive sounds of glass bottles clinking, markers squeaking on whiteboards, and endless questions flying across the room. “Every day I learned something new,” he says.

Even in those busy early days, Zhang was already thinking bigger.

“Making just a few grams felt too slow,” he recalls. “I wondered if we could produce more at once.”

He mentioned this idea half-jokingly to the management team. A few days later, they gave him a real challenge: a project involving two tons of material, and Zhang would be in charge.

By the end of 2001, he was leading his first large-scale reaction. By mid-2002, WuXi AppTec decided to build its own factory, the starting point of what would later grow into a global manufacturing network.

Zhang divided his time between supervising rented pilot plants and helping construct the new site. When the factory opened, someone needed to take charge. He stepped up.

“I never planned to work in manufacturing,” he says. “It just grew together with the company.”

In the beginning, projects came faster than experience. “I felt like a firefighter,” Zhang laughs. But those early struggles taught the discipline and habits that would later define WuXi AppTec’s precision.

By 2008 and 2009, production finally found its rhythm. The firefighting had turned into harmonized operation.

When the Impossible was the Only Option

By 2019, WuXi AppTec’s production lines were reaching their limits. Reactors sometimes sat unused, not because there were no orders, but because the scheduling, cleaning, and maintenance did not connect smoothly.

To fix this, Zhang led a companywide effort to make production work like a “real-time orchestra.”

The changes looked simple but made a huge difference: using smarter solvents to shorten cleaning time, doing preventive maintenance like a race car team changing tires, and arranging project schedules so they fit together perfectly.

As a result, capacity use rose from 40 percent to over 70 percent, a gain equal to adding eight new factories without building anything new.

And while mistakes happened once in every hundred batches, now they are almost gone. To Zhang, the days of constant firefighting were officially behind them.

Then came an even bigger test. Zhang’s team was asked to deliver an important API for a major client. To meet the deadline, they had to build and qualify a completely new production line in less than four months.

“Most people said it was impossible,” Zhang recalls.

But he had already learned WuXi AppTec’s meaning of speed: skill built on belief. Suppliers, builders, and regulators all joined the effort. They worked through tight schedules, sourced parts from across the globe, and finished ahead of time.

When the first batch was completed, it was more than just another delivery. It was proof that the balance of speed, cost, and quality—the so-called impossible triangle—could truly be achieved.

“The reason we succeeded,” Zhang says softly, “is because we knew it was the right thing to do. And when people see your determination to do the right thing, and do it right, they will follow you.”

Not long after, another challenge arrived.

A client sent Zhang a new order for a new peptide project: twice the scale of their previous project just a year earlier, yet with the same delivery deadline. It was both a compliment and a test.

Even with WuXi AppTec’s ongoing expansion of production capacity, the task was daunting.

At a crucial moment, teams from manufacturing, R&D, technical operations, and quality assurance worked together seamlessly. Multiple production lines were qualified, and capacity was rapidly increased. At the same time, lean operations drove efficiency, with continuous improvements that shortened the production cycle.

In the end, Zhang’s team delivered with 100 percent success, doubling the previous output, with zero delays.

The client’s response was short but powerful: “You are our reliable partner.”

The Quiet Architect

Colleagues describe Zhang as calm and humble. He talks more about systems than about himself, and he always gives credit to others — the operators, engineers, and team leaders who make everything work.

“I’m not very good at talking about how well I do,” he says with a smile. “But I can tell you how good our system is.”

When asked what “WuXi Speed” really means, Zhang does not use fancy words. He talks instead about scheduling algorithms, reactor turnover, and the kind of teamwork that leaves no idle hour unclaimed.

“Speed is not about rushing,” he says. “It is about creating systems that waste nothing: not time, not materials, not opportunities.”

Under his leadership, WuXi AppTec’s 40 plants and 800 reactors now produce more than 30,000 batches each year. The company’s work spans the world, but its spirit stays the same: careful, thoughtful, and deeply human.

For Zhang, innovation is not only about discovering new molecules but also about improving how things are made. He lists technologies that have changed modern manufacturing, such as spray-dried dispersion, flow chemistry, biocatalysis, and advanced crystallization and separation.

Among them, he is most proud of enzyme-based catalysis. It replaces strong chemicals with enzymes and water, making reactions cleaner and safer while improving efficiency.

“A traditional reaction might take five steps,” Zhang explains. “With biocatalysis, we can finish it in just one.”

He adds that these innovations started long before clients asked for them. “That is how we stay ready,” he says. “When the industry changes, we already have the tools.”

That forward thinking is one reason clients trust him when deadlines are tight, or challenges appear. After one complex project, a client told him, “You are our best partner, truly world-class.”

Zhang simply nodded, thanked the client, and returned to work.

The Same Vision

From the first rented plant in Jinshan to sites across China, the United States, Europe, and soon Singapore, Zhang has watched manufacturing grow from hand-drawn flowcharts to fully digital control centers.

Yet, he says, the vision remains the same.

“For me, ‘Every drug can be made, and every disease can be treated’ means shortening the path from an idea to a real medicine,” he explains. “It means using our systems, our knowledge, our skills to help better drugs reach patients faster.”

He pauses for a moment, thoughtful as always. “We started by learning how to make reactions work,” he says. “Now we are learning how to make everything work together.”

In that simple sentence lies the meaning of WuXi Speed: not a rush, but a rhythm; not pride, but purpose.

And at its center stands Feng Zhang, the quiet architect who turned the noise of chemistry into the harmony of progress.