Real-life Breaking Bad, without the crime? Meet the world’s richest self-made female billionaire Zhong Huijuan, the chemistry teacher who made her fortune in pharmaceuticals

Oct 21, 2020

Former chemistry teacher Zhong Huijuan is now the matriarch of pharmaceutical company Hansoh Pharmaceutical. Photo: Baidu

Millionaires, billionaires and trillionaires

Chinese billionaire and pharmaceuticals power couple Sun Piaoyang and Zhong Huijuan outpace the Sackler and Bertarelli families – but before founding Hansoh Pharmaceutical, Zhong was a humble chemistry teacher

Before Zhong Huijuan became a pharmaceutical self-made matriarch worth over US$18.9 billion, she was a chemistry teacher. So no wonder she’s been playfully compared to Walter White, the fictional drug kingpin and protagonist of hit TV series Breaking Bad, for her career change – although without the criminal aspect.

Rather than manufacturing and pushing methamphetamines, Zhong heads up a company that develops drugs to treat a variety of health issues. It might be more appropriate to compare her and her husband to the Schwartzes, the show’s power couple who founded a successful legitimate biotech company and broke ties with their one-time partner White.

Hansoh Pharmaceutical’s Lianyungang research centre. Photo: Hansoh Pharmaceutical