Xiangmin Cui's vision, in co-founding Pan Pacific Pharmaceuticals two years ago, was to combine his personal knowledge of traditional Chinese medicines with the scientific training he received both in China and at Stanford University. Pan Pacific's lead compound for rheumatoid arthritis has been successfully cloned and expressed, and shown to be identical in structure and activity to a naturally occurring molecule with potency against the disease.

As Asian economies boom, Western lifestyles and industrialization are causing a rise in cancer--an permitting once-poor medical systems to pay for treatment. For US companies, the trick is to follow treatment patterns and reimbursement practices which differ from country to country in the region.