Featured Companies

WuXi PharmaTech COO Highlights Growth Feb 25, 2010: WuXi PharmaTech plans to continue its growth by expanding into biotech, safety evaluation and manufacturing. In fact, to make the growth a reality, the company invests about $60 million each year in capital expenditures. "The majority of our clients are big international firms, with Pfizer and Merck ranking as the top two,” said Edward Hu, COO of the WuXi PharmaTech in a recent interview. More details...

Stock Symbol: (NYSE: WX)

JOINN Takes Big Leap into China’s CRO Future Nov 9, 2009: JOINN Laboratories (昭衍新药研究中心有限公司) has a very specific vision of the future for CROs in China. “We expect a huge increase in demand for CRO services,” said John Gong, PhD, VP and CTO of JOINN in an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today. “In the near future, pharma will outsource 75% of its pre-clinical work, up from a level of about 25% today.” JOINN is positioning itself for the future CRO environment dominated by large, multinational pharmaceutical companies. “We would like to have preferred relationships with big pharma where we do 10-20 projects for a single company and have guaranteed income and maybe have a dedicated building for them,” said Gong. More details...

Interview: China Looms Large for Bayer Growth Strategy Jun 12, 2009: Bayer Healthcare China produced more than $750 million of revenue in 2008 with a growth rate of 56%. That was enough to make Bayer both the leading healthcare company in China and the fastest growing multinational. “We will support innovation and new ideas in every area of the company, not just in research and development,” said Liam Condon, Managing Director, Bayer HealthCare China, in a recent interview that discussed Bayer’s strategy for China. More details…

Stock Symbol: (XETRA: BAYG.X)

GeneHarbor Technologies: Novel Enzymes for New Applications May 18, 2009: GeneHarbor (Hong Kong) Technologies, Co. is dedicated to the discovery of novel enzymes. Jun Wang, PhD, Chairman and CEO of the company, is careful to distinguish GeneHarbor from other enzyme companies that may, on the surface, appear similar: “Our major product is enzymes, but we are different from most other enzyme companies because we are primarily an R&D company, not a manufacturing company. We discover new enzymes for new applications,” he said in an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today. GeneHarbor's mission is to expand the spectrum of enzymatic applications. More details...

Sinoasis Develops Proprietary Technology for Therapeutic Antibodies May 4, 2009: Sinoasis Pharmaceuticals, a young Guangzhou biopharma founded in 2003, is building its business around a proprietary platform technology for discovering fully human therapeutic antibodies. “We have a technology that can functionally select an antibody or domains with thermodynamic stability,” said Shengfeng Li, PhD, in an exclusive ChinaBio® Today interview. Thermodynamic stability “is one of the key properties for therapeutic antibodies as they often require a long half-life,” he explained. More details...

aTyr Using Hong Kong to Leverage Development of New Class of Biologics Mar 13, 2009: aTyr Pharma, headquartered in San Diego, but with an additional lab in Hong Kong, is developing naturally occurring protein fragments that may be able to treat a wide variety of diseases. The fragments were discovered by Paul Schimmel, PhD, who co-founded aTyr. The impetus to establish a China connection came from Dr. Schimmel. Dr. Schimmel had also had a very positive experience with Sirtris, which had some of its pre-clinical work done in Shanghai. It wasn’t just a matter of money, according to Jeff Watkins, PhD and CEO of aTyr Pharma in an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today: “He found the work done there was absolutely critical to the success of Sirtris’ molecules.” More details...

Featured Company: HD Biosciences Receives Pfizer’s Top Partner Award Feb 25, 2009: HD Biosciences Co., Ltd., the Shanghai-based biotech CRO, was given the “2008 Top Research Service Partner” award by multinational big pharma Pfizer. The award was given to recognize the quality, productivity, and value that HD Biosciences delivered in its collaboration with Pfizer during the past year. We profile the company and include an exclusive interview with CEO and Founder Dr. Xuehai Tan. More details...
Stock Symbol: (NYSE: PFE)

ProteLight and BioAMPs Take on Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria Dec 24, 2008: Drug resistant strains of pathogens are an urgent unmet need, but currently, despite the large market opportunity, there are no new classes of antibiotics in clinical development. ProteLight Pharmaceuticals （长春普莱医药生物技术有限公司）of China and BioAMPs International of Denver, CO want to change that. Together, the two companies own the worldwide rights to V13K, a peptide-based antibiotic currently in pre-clinical development. As a peptide, V13K attacks the membrane of the pathogen, instead of targeting a metabolic pathway as a small-molecule drug would do. In an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today, the CEOs discuss their companies....

China Sky One Medical: A Company on the Move Dec 8, 2008: China Sky One Medical (中国天字一号医药公司), as we are reminded almost weekly, is a tornado of activity, acquiring companies and bringing out new products at a pace unmatched in China biopharma. Last week, The China Perspective published an interview with Mr. Yan-qing Liu, CEO of China Sky One Medical (see article), an interview that reinforced the company-in-a-hurry theme. Nevertheless, despite its success, the stock remains priced very low relative to its prospects, probably due to the worldwide economic crisis. Using Mr. Lui’s latest interview as an excuse, we would like to take another look at the whirlwind that is China Sky One. More details...
Stock Symbol: (NSDQ: CSKI)

PharmaLegacy, a Pharmacology CRO, Opens Its Doors Oct 27, 2008: Recently, PharmaLegacy Laboratories Co., Ltd held its Grand Opening in Shanghai’s ZhangJiang Hi-Tech Park. The CRO, which offers specialty pre-clinical pharmacology services, has expertise in the areas of oncology, bone, orthopedics, inflammation, immune disease, and PD/PK. In an exclusive interview with ChinaBio® Today, CEO Darren Ji, PhD said PharmaLegacy is “a specialty shop that offers one-stop shopping in pharmacology. It is the largest dedicated China pharmacology lab in scale and scope for preclinical services, offering animal-based pharmacology and preliminary toxicity studies.” We ask Dr. Ji to explain his new company...
Stock Symbols: (NYSE: PG) (NYSE: MDS) (AIM: HCM)