British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) has said it will invest $100 million by 2008 end to start a neuroscience research center in Shanghai.
According to a UK business paper the Chinese center will become an important base for GSK to develop global drug.
GSK's Chairman of R&D, Moncef Slaoui told the paper that the Shanghai center will be a one stop shop doing research on all neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.
The paper quoted him as saying, "For us, China is not about outsourcing and cheap labor. We don't want to give them the crumbs. It's about different science. We will link our fate to their fate. Within five to ten years we will be moving from 'made in China' to discovered in China."
Increasingly global pharma companies are looking at China and India both as ready market and a place to do high end research due to their huge population and young scientists and professionals.
GSK zeroed in on China as it was looking at the next seedbed for future discoveries. Slaoui said, "qualitatively and numerically, China came out on top, especially in oncology and neurology.”