Novartis to invest additional US$1b

NOVARTIS AG yesterday signed a deal with the Shanghai government to invest an additional US$1 billion over five years in the drug maker's third-biggest research and development center in the world.

With the new investment, the Basel, Switzerland-based company deepened its strategic cooperation with Shanghai as the drug maker has already invested US$100 million in the city on the R&D center.

Phase I of the project, which is based in Shanghai's Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park, became operational in 2007 and is expected to become one of the largest integrated bio-pharmaceutical research centers in China by next year. Its primary research covers cancer, and it is also involved in other projects in innovative chemistry and biomarket research.

Novartis has also been cooperating with the Institute of Biomedical Science of Fudan University in cancer research since last year.

Bio-pharmaceutical is one of the key nine high-tech industries that Shanghai will focus on. Foreign drug makers, including Pfizer and Sanofi-aventis, have set up 83 R&D centers in Shanghai.

Novartis' sales in China last year totaled 3.3 billion yuan (US$483 million), a 29-percent jump from a year ago, and contributed nearly 8 percent of its global sales.

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