Eli Lilly is deepening its commitment to China and diabetics in the country by opening a new R&D center in Shanghai that aims to discover novel compounds that will lead to breakthrough therapies for diabetes

Although AstraZeneca is paring down its pipeline by halting discovery efforts in 10 specific diseases, which account for 25 percent of the total diseases that earlier drove research by AstraZeneca ("The Pink Sheet" Daily, March 2, 2010), it won't stop R&D expansion plans in China. As big pharmaceutical firms compete to find the next generation of innovative drugs, translational science may help companies to find the right drug for the right patient and bring these medicines to market faster. During the recent Asia Pharma R&D Leaders conference in Shanghai, Richard Wang, AstraZeneca's Director of Strategic Alliances - Asia, sat down with PharmAsia News' Shanghai Bureau to discuss the strategy of AstraZeneca's Innovation Center China and how translational science is helping the company develop new compounds.

SHANGHAI - WuXi Pharmatech, China's top contract research organization, and Qiagen, the leading global provider of sample and assay technologies, announced Jan. 11 that they reached an agreement to provide an integrated single solution for molecular biomarker development, validation and personalized healthcare targets for their respective client bases