The world's largest manufacture of cancer drugs and diagnostics tests, Roche, has announced the opening of its new global R&D center in Shanghai.

This is the fifth global research and development center of the Swiss Roche Group. The four others are based in Switzerland, Germany, the United States and Japan.

Franz B. Humer, chairman and CEO of Roche said it is a strategic choice for Roche to set up an R&D center in China, as the country's sustained economic growth and its improved investment environment has filled Roche with increased confidence in the Chinese market.

He added that for Roche, China is not only an important sales market and production base, but also a vital R&D center, for the country has great potential in the pharmaceuticals and its diagnostics business.

The new center, located at Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in the Pudong New District of Shanghai, is expected to be a world top-level R&D center for new pharmaceuticals in three to five years, said Andreas Tschirky, general manager of Roche China Co., Ltd.

According to Tschirky, the center, which is to employ about 40 scientists, will also work in cooperation with Roche's other four global R&D centers to select new clinical drugs for Roche's global strategy.

Sources noted that the Shanghai center will also seek cooperation with Chinese pharmaceutical companies, hospitals and scientific institutions in the fields of genetics and gene study.

The new Roche center has also decided to invest tens of million Yuan on new pharmaceuticals research, and support China's domestic pharmaceutical centers to launch cooperation with the international organizations in treating cancer and hepatitis.

A decade ago, Roche opened its first Chinese branch in Shanghai,and in the ensuing years, the group then set up its regional headquarter and R&D center in the city.

Currently, the Roche Group has invested more than US$300 million in China, and maintained two-digit growth in sales output in the country, where it sold 1.7 billion yuan (about US$200 million) worth of pharmaceutical and diagnostic products in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency November 3, 2004)