Drug major AstraZeneca is now looking at India and China to pursue much of their research and development initiatives. A visible trend is to source local talent as they have a better understanding of their country-specific diseases. The company also sees a fresh perspective to develop medicine coming out of the research from the two countries.

There is an imminent shift in research activity from developed markets of the US and Europe where budgets are tighter, to those in India and China. The company‘s labs in Sweden, UK and Boston work in partnership with bio companies, academic institutions, governments and other non-profit organizations, sharing skills, knowledge and resources to achieve a common goal: improved health.

The company has 14 R&D centres in eight countries, including Sweden, the US and the UK. It is giving researchers the enhanced tools and skills required  to make the right decisions to deliver performance. This is where we are looking for local talent for our R&D centres in India and China  primarily because scientists will have a better understanding of the diseases prevalent in their  countries. Like for instance, AstraZeneca at its Pharmaceutical Development Bangalore (PDB) focuses on infectious diseases and its study on multi drug resistant tuberculosis is undergoing clinical trials on humans. Its  R&D Centre at Shanghai in China, is engaged in cancer studies of Gastro Intestinal (GI) tract and liver because Asia accounts for a high incidence of the condition. We have now collaborated with Sweden and UK labs to drive this research, stated Dr Steve Q Yang, vice president, head, R&D, Asia & Emerging Markets, AstraZeneca Global R&D.

Currently, there are 400 scientists at the AstraZeneca research labs in India and China. While the PDB in India has 200 researchers working on anti infection, at the Shanghai centre 100 are for cancer related studies and the remaining 100 for clinical development, he added.

Dr Yang was here in India in connection with AstraZeneca Nobel Medicine Initiative in India held here in association with the Indian Institute of Science. The event was an effort to bring the inspiring achievements of Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine to the attention of a worldwide audience.

Innovation benefits pharma industry to counter a disease by developing   complex drugs to control it. With a fall in research funding in the West ensuing out of the global economic slowdown, India and China continue to receive significant government support and scientists representing universities and companies can capitalize on the financial assistance to begin or advance studies on diseases which can be reviewed by AstraZeneca for possible future analysis, said Dr Yang.

New pathogen studies are both interesting and challenging. “We have seen that the scientists in this part of the world from India and China are proving to be diligent and zealous, making research exciting and stimulating. Moreover, a unique phenomenon in India and China is that AstraZeneca sees a fresh perspective to develop medicine,” he pointed out.