Roche, one of the world's leading healthcare groups, will establish a research and development center in the Zhangjiang High-Tech Park of Shanghai's Pudong New Area.

It will be Roche's fifth R&D center in the world and the first in a developing country, said Andreas Tschirky, who is expected to become the managing director of the R&D center.

It will also be the first wholly owned and operated R&D center set up in Shanghai by a multinational pharmaceutical company. Roche's other four R&D sites are in the US, Germany and its headquarters in Basel, Switzerland.

"For Roche, the establishment of the R&D center means we are entering a new field in China - in addition to our production facilities in Shanghai and our nationwide marketing and sales organization," said Roche Pharmaceuticals Shanghai Ltd General Manager Antonio Chow.

"For China, this investment is a big step towards making Shanghai a center for pharmaceutical research and biotechnology through transfers of international expertise, competence and knowledge."

He added that Roche's prescription medicine business is expected to double in China in the coming five years to 2 billion yuan (US$240 million). Scheduled to be fully operational by the end of the year, the Shanghai R&D facility will be staffed by 40 chemists.

After the R&D center gains more experience within the next five years, it will become more active in participating in Roche's global projects, according to Chow.

Roche Group Research President Jonathan Knowles was quoted by company officials as saying that China is a country with excellent resources and internationally trained biomedical scientists.

The creation of the fifth research site in the Roche Pharmaceutical Division represents a key strategic decision that will allow Roche to continue to enhance its capabilities in medicinal chemistry on a global level, Knowles was quoted as saying.

"Looking at the long term, our aim is for the group in Shanghai to discover and optimize new molecules - active ingredients of potential new drugs - which address important unmet medical needs and can be marketed worldwide, including China," Knowles said.

(China Daily January 19, 2004)