Boards
News
Market Data
Markets
Discover
Discover
AI Subscribe Login/Register account icon
S&P 500
6,629.36
(
-1.29%
)
US TECH 100
23,850.40
(
-1.17%
)
Dow Jones
46,232.54
(
-1.62%
)
Brent Oil
106.75
(
6.06%
)
Bitcoin
71,106.44
(
-3.83%
)
News Focus
News Focus
Post# of 257253
Next 10
Public Reply Private Reply New Post
Keep Last Read
Keep Next 10 Report Keyboard Shortcuts
Next 10 Prev Next

DewDiligence

Send PM Follow Ignore
Followers 842
Posts 122793
Boards Moderated 10
Alias Born 09/05/2002

DewDiligence

Member Level

Re: None

Monday, 10/31/2005 2:40:56 AM

Monday, October 31, 2005 2:40:56 AM

Post# of 257253
Novartis plans China facility

[In a separate statement (on a recent CC) NVS CEO Dan Vasella said that 40% of NVS’ chemists employed in the U.S. are Chinese (from China—not Chinese-American).]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB113050104598982417.html

>>
Drug firm still concerned
about property protections
but sees a market need

By JAMES T. AREDDY
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
October 31, 2005

SHANGHAI -- Novartis AG intends to announce formally in 2006 that it will open a major research center in China, despite its continuing concerns about the country's intellectual-property theft, rising wages and pollution, the Swiss pharmaceutical maker's top executive said.

"The strategic decision to do it has been taken," Daniel Vasella, chairman and chief executive of the drug giant, said Friday.

The company's plan for a research center underscores the increasing success China is having in persuading multinational companies to put aside their concerns about intellectual-property protection and transfer technology to the country.

Novartis, the world's fourth-largest pharmaceuticals company in terms of market value, is the latest among a number of multinationals that are turning to China to conduct more research and development, partly with the aim of leveraging the country's cheaper labor, but mostly in response to the growing importance of the Chinese market.

In Shanghai, General Motors Corp. has an auto-design lab and Tyco International Ltd. trains doctors to use its surgical equipment. Novartis, with $28.2 billion in sales in 2004, said it intends to locate foreign specialists at its lab in China.

Dr. Vasella said the focus of the center, which is slated for either Shanghai or Beijing, hasn't been decided, but will reflect medical challenges that are especially acute in China, such as treating infectious diseases including hepatitis. He also noted that the risk of cancer is increasing in China, as life expectancy is now nearly 71 years.

"This kind of research here would have a much heavier weight" done in China than elsewhere, he said. The company has major research centers in Boston [actually Cambridge, Massachusetts] and Basel, Switzerland, with smaller facilities in Britain, Austria, Japan and Singapore.

Mr. Vasella was among 32 chief executives who attended an annual conference in Shanghai to discuss their concerns about doing business in the city with Mayor Han Zheng.

Mr. Vasella said he planned to discuss the importance of intellectual-property protection with Chinese officials. Insufficient protection has long been "the stumbling stone" to pharmaceutical-research investment in China, and is "not yet sufficiently, I think, enforced," he said. But he said he sees "a desire" by authorities to enforce protections.

Separately, Dr. Vasella said Novartis has no products under development that would protect humans against an outbreak of bird flu, which has killed more than 60 people in Asia and was recently detected in central China. He said the company recently formed a Boston-based task force "to come up with approaches" for possible therapeutic applications. And he said Novartis has told Roche Holding AG that it would be prepared to manufacture its Tamiflu treatment on a licensed basis if asked, but won't try to replicate the antiviral drug.
<<

“The efficient-market hypothesis may be
the foremost piece of B.S. ever promulgated
in any area of human knowledge!”

Public Reply Private Reply New Post
Keep Last Read
Keep Last Read Next 10 Report Keyboard Shortcuts
Next 10 Prev Next

Trade Smarter with Thousands

Leverage decades of market experience shared openly.

Join Now