LILLY DROPS AN ANCHOR IN SHANGHAI

Abstract

LAST MONTH , a group of senior scientists from Eli Lilly & Co. started working out of an office in Shanghai’s Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park. Rather than do research themselves, they are there to provide scientific leadership to the Chinese firms that Lilly has tasked with a steadily expanding range of R&D activities. “Large multinational drug companies conduct research in China either by building their own brick-and-mortar R&D centers or by building relationships with contract research organizations,” says Robert W. Armstrong, a Lilly vice president in charge of global external R&D. “We are in the second camp.” Non-U.S. pharmaceutical companies, including Novartis, AstraZeneca, Roche, and GlaxoSmithKline, have built or are in the process of building their own R&D centers in China. U.S. drug firms such as Lilly, Pfizer, and Merck & Co. have generally opted to take advantage of China’s scientists by collaborating with third parties there. Armstrong does not see the new coordination facility in Shanghai ...