Health

COLOMBO, July 21 (Xinhua) -- Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena attended a groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday to launch the construction of a China-Sri Lanka friendship hospital in Polonnaruwa in north central Sri Lanka.

The National Nephrology Specialist Hospital is being constructed following a request by President Sirisena to the Chinese government.

The 25,517-square-meter hospital, which will be the largest kidney hospital in South Asia, will include 200 inpatient beds and 100 hemodialysis beds.

SHANGHAI, July 17 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese research group on Tuesday announced progress in developing a drug to treat Alzheimer's disease.

GV-971 was developed by Ocean University of China, Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica under Chinese Academy of Sciences and Green Valley Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, after a 21-year study.

A phase three clinical trial is the last test before reaching the market.

In the trial, participants took 450 mg GV-971 orally twice a day for 36 weeks, which proved effective in improving cognition.