Word: drugging
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...drugmakers are happy to oblige. Both U.K.-based AstraZeneca and Swiss outfit Novartis have announced plans to spend $100 million on new R&D labs in Shanghai. In June, the U.S.'s Eli Lilly pledged to spend $300 million within the next five years. Britain's GlaxoSmithKline started 17 drug trials in 2006 and plans to double that number this year...
...Pharma's top priority right now is to refill its drug pipeline; $29 billion worth of patents are set to expire worldwide in the next two years. The industry can do that cheaply in China, where salaries for American-educated scientists are often half those of their Western counterparts. "Of course money plays a role in the decision to do business there," says Lee Babiss, head of global research at Swiss giant Roche, which invested more than $50 million in China last year. "But it's more about getting new, diverse blood into our labs...
...price tag for drug trials in China can be one-tenth that in the U.S. or Europe, says Chen Li, medical director at the Shanghai-based firm KendleWits, which facilitates drug trials for major drug companies. Plus, she says, "patients are less likely to have been previously exposed to other medicines" that could alter results...
...There are still some lingering doubts about China's system for guaranteeing product safety, patients' health (What happens to them when the trial ends?) and intellectual-property protection. Authorities arrested 774 people in August and September as part of a crackdown on the sale of tainted food, drugs and agricultural products. Two-thirds of multinational drug companies told the consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers in a recent survey that they remained concerned about both IP protection and corruption in China...
...website and fined the offender $25,000. Novartis CEO Daniel Vasella, for one, cites China's "enlightened" patent laws as the reason the Swiss drugmaker will continue to invest in China vs. India, where a court recently rejected the company's attempt to protect a patent on a leukemia drug. "China has made tremendous progress and taken the steps to show they have the right priorities," he says. Or, rather, it's done just what the doctor ordered...