Bayer Schering Pharma AG, the pharmaceutical division of Bayer HealthCare (BHC), announced that it will be strengthening its global Research and Development (R&D) capabilities through the foundation of a global R&D centre in Beijing, China.
The company will invest some 100 million Euro over the next five years to establish the centre. With the establishment of the R&D centre in China, especially Asian patients will benefit from considering their clinical profile and medical needs early-on.
"We are continuously increasing our presence in the Asia Pacific Region where China is our key growth driver. In our new R&D Centre in Beijing, we will establish a world class R&D team extending our global R&D expertise and capabilities," said Andreas Fibig, executive committee member of BHC and chairman of Bayer Schering Pharma AG's board of management. "Beijing will be an important site for our global innovative drug development."
According to IMS Health, Bayer is the number one healthcare company in China and the growth rate in China was around 43 per cent in 2007. China is the third largest market worldwide for the Bayer group, and it will become the third country besides Germany and the US to host a Global R&D Centre for Bayer Schering Pharma. Highly talented scientific teams will cooperate in Beijing focusing on the development of innovative therapies.
"Our goal is to build a world class organization here in Beijing that will lead drug development not only for China but also for other Asian countries." said Kemal Malik, member of the board of management of Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Head of Global Development and Chief Medical Officer. "Our aim is to systematically include Asian patients earlier in global drug development, breaking the tradition of 'US and EU first'."
Bayer Schering Pharma AG is a worldwide leading specialty pharmaceutical company focusing on women's healthcare, cardiology, oncology and diagnostic imaging. It possesses high competence in these therapeutic areas with a strong development pipeline.
"Constantly improving the quality and output of research is crucial for a pharmaceutical company to bring novel therapies to patients." said Andreas Busch, member of the board of management of Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Head of Global Drug Discovery. "We believe that China bears tremendous potential in terms of innovation. In addition to the establishment of development functions, we will also launch the Global Drug Discovery Innovation Centre here in Beijing where our scientists will expedite new innovative approaches together with our Chinese partners. By doing so, we also want to support the further development of local expertise."
Along this line, Bayer Schering Pharma also announced that it is currently in advanced discussions with Tsinghua University on entering into a unique strategic partnership to pursue research collaborations for the discovery of new disease-related targets in the core areas of Bayer's pharmaceutical research. With this partnership Bayer would be the first multinational company in China to enter into a partnership with such a respected and renowned Chinese university.
"China is home to a large pool of skilled medical and scientific talents. Our goal is to work closely together with our Chinese partners to support China conducting their own R&D activities and at the same time we will be able to strengthen our own R&D capabilities," said Andreas Fibig.
The Bayer Group is a global enterprise with core competencies in the fields of health care, nutrition and high-tech materials. Bayer HealthCare, a subsidiary of Bayer AG, is one of the world's leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany.