Novartis to establish new research hub

Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, has announced it has established a new research and development facility in Shanghai, China.

The company says that the plant in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park will become an “integral” part of its global research facilities, with an initial emphasis on researching factors of cancer that are widespread in China and surrounding countries.

The new site starts operations in May 2007 and will comprise elements of both modern technology and traditional medicinal conventions, according to Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive officer of Novartis.

He remarked: “The Shanghai centre will allow us to combine modern drug discovery approaches with those of traditional Chinese medicine that have been used to treat patients in China for thousands of years.”

Dr Jean Jacques Garaud, global head of exploratory development at Novartis, added that the operations of the new facility would go “far beyond” conducting early clinical trials, with bio-analytics, gene expression profiling, safety studies and biomarker detection all taking a role.

Novartis claims to be the fourth largest pharmaceutical company operating in the Chinese hospital market, with a growth rate of more than 30 per cent over the last five years.

It has had operations in the region since 1938, when its subsidiary, Ciba, opened an office in Shanghai.

The Beijing Municipal Bureau of Industrial Development states that Beijing is the country’s centre of research and development, as well as the “largest market for pharmaceutical distribution and consumption in China”.