trials. shijiazhuang pharma group is very typical in the new drug development. the company uses three ways: first, develop new drugs in collaboration with universities and research institutes; second, apply for generic drugs rights before patented drugs' patents expire; and third, modernize the traditional chinese medicines (tcm), that is, develop tcms in the same quantitative way as is used in developing chemical drugs. the third way was used in the development of butylphthalide, a traditional chinese medicine extracted from celery seeds. wuxi pharmatech: wuxi pharmatech (cayman), inc., through its subsidiaries, operates as a pharmaceutical and biotechnology research and development outsourcing company in the people's republic of china. it provides a portfolio of laboratory and manufacturing services in the drug discovery and development process to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. in addition, wuxi pharmatech's services include process development, such as process research and process optimization services to assist customers to manufacture their drug candidates; and manufacturing of advanced intermediates, which are drug materials prior to refinement into active pharmaceutical ingredients. listed on the new york stock exchange: stock symbol adr (nyse) wx. harbin pharmaceutical group co. is about to become more competitive, with a planned $250 million capital infusion from two foreign investors, warburg pincus of new york and citic capital of hong kong. that money will allow harbin to expand its r&d efforts—the company spends about 5% of revenue on r&d, exceptional for a chinese drug maker yet just a third of what most multinationals spend—and help it become predator rather than prey as the consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry gets more ferocious. sinovac biotech ltd. (amex:sva) has recently launched marketing of bilive and expects to record its first sales in may 2005 a combined hepatitis a&b vaccine. this is the first combined inactivated hepatitis a&b vaccine developed by chinese scientists, and the vaccine has only one directly competing combined hepatitis a&b vaccine in the world, gsk's twinrix, which is not available in china and sells for a much higher price than bilive in countries where it is for sale. in 2004, the company had sales about $6.5 million sales, more than two times 2003 sales. sinovac now has two vaccines fully approved for sale in china. it is currently the world leader in the development of a sars vaccine. zensun (shanghai) sci & tech co., ltd is a bio-tech pharmaceutical company well-versed in the demands of the international market with a high profit potential based on innovation. it is devoted to the research and development of new drugs through self-owned intellectual properties. with adherence to the tenet of "healing for life", zensun has long been focusing on the research of anti-tumor drugs and anti-heart failure drugs. based on the innovative theory, zensun has successfully developed two drugs: recombinant human neuregulin-1 injection, an anti-heart failure drug, and recombinant human erbb3 fragment injection, a therapeutic vaccine against tumors, both of which have undergone clinical trials. in 2006, zensun (shanghai) set up a subsidiary company, zensun (usa), inc., in san diego, ca to manage fda filing, clinical trials and commercialization process of recombinant human neuregulin-1 (neucardin), an exciting and novel treatment for chronic heart failure, as well as other compounds developed by zensun (shanghai). in 2009, zensun (usa) was approved by the us fda to conduct a phase 2a us-based trial of neucardin administration to subjects with nyha class ii and iii chronic heart failure. tonghua dongbao pharmaceuticals ltd., founded in 1985, is a bio-tech pharmaceutical with headquarters, research and manufacturing facilities situated in china's northern city of tonghua. in 1998 tonghua dongbao became the 3rd company worldwide to successfully develop and manufacture its own recombinant human insulin line, gansulin, for the treatment of diabetes mellitus. its recombinant human insulin production base is the largest of its kind in asia, producing both vials of insulin and insulin cartridges for the gansulin insulin pen. the company is accelerating expansion into markets outside of china, currently exporting insulin and a variety of other medicine to over 10 countries. foreign expansion most chinese pharma companies with foreign distribution export traditional chinese medicine mainly to asian countries or regions. their foreign distribution, therefore, is not as significant as their western counterparts. the chinese government legalized foreign ownership of retail pharmacies in 2003. on 14 march 2005, axm pharma inc. (amex: axj) entered into a distribution agreement with sinopharm holding guangzhou co., ltd. for an expected purchase amount through december 2005 of rmb 54 million ($6.56 million) for the company's line of elegance products, formerly known as whisper. additional products, including anti-fatigue and asarone, are expected to be sold in upcoming quarters. the sales territory includes guangdong, guangxi, yunnan, guizhou, fujian, sichuan, chongqing, hainan, hubei and hunan. sinopharm holding guangzhou co., ltd., an affiliate of china national pharmaceutical group corp. is actively engaged in the research and development, capital investment, manufacture and trade of pharmaceuticals and medical instruments. sinopharm has achieved an annual sales volume of 10 billion rmb (over 1.2 billion u.s. dollars) and a total import and export volume of 200 million u.s. dollars. foreign companies in recent years, more and more western pharmaceutical corporations, such as pfizer, gsk, roche, novo nordisk, have set up commercial operations and r&d centers in china. many world leading pharmaceutical companies have established joint venture manufactories in china. some have even set up sole propriety manufactories. as of 2004, amongst the largest 500 overseas enterprises, 14 of them are pharmaceutical companies. as of 2004 (three years after china's wto entry), nearly all global pharmaceutical companies have already completed their accession into the chinese market and will gradually shift their focus to research development. the main reasons for overseas companies coming to china have been to save costs by using the extensive science and technology research bases currently in place in china, the abundant human resources, and less expensive medical and clinical trials. foreign production the involvement of many foreign pharmacy enterprises operating in china can be dated back to a century ago. bayer of germany, the inventor of aspirin, began trade with china in as early as 1882. hoechst ag, known as aventis, sold its products through 128 distribution agents across china in 1887, becoming china's no.1 western medicine and dyeing provider. the us eli lilly & co. opened its first overseas representative office in china's shanghai in 1918. ici, the predecessor of the world's no 3 pharmacy enterprise astrazeneca, began trade with china in 1898, and still maintained its old-time office by the huangpu river in shanghai. as of 2007, there were already 1,800 foreign-funded pharmaceutical enterprises in china . currently, all the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world have set up joint ventures or wholly owned facilities in china. this suggests that market conditions have never been more challenging, with competition at an all-time high. pfizer produces and markets more than 40 innovative drugs in china, and the quality of its products all met the chinese pharmacopeia. pfizer has gmp manufacturing facilities in dalian, suzhou and wuxi. its dalian facility, built in 1989 jointly with dalian pharmaceuticals was the first to get gmp certification in china. pfizer has invested more than $500 million in china. lastly, in 2012 pfizer established a joint venture with hisun pharmaceuticals (hisun 51% – pfizer 49%) to market branded generics under the label hisun-pfizer. glaxosmithkline has more than 2000 employees in china, and its drugs are sold in 60 cities. the company mainly sells drugs treating hbv, asthmas and infections. merck sells antibiotics, prostate drugs, cardiovascular drugs, pain relievers, osteoporosis and vaccines. it set up its first joint venture in china in 1994. novartis has invested about 100 million in china, with four manufacturing facilities in beijing and shanghai (changsu). its core businesses involve patented drugs, generic drugs, eye protection drugs and health products. novartis beijing was founded by novartis ag and beijing pharmaceutical group and beijing zizhu pharmaceuticals in 1987, the first foreign pharmaceutical company in china. sanofi-aventis the german-french company sells several drugs in china. sanofi aventis runs three facilities in beijing, shenzhen and hangzhou; currently, they're in the process of building a brand new vaccine plant outside shenzhen. astrazeneca pharmaceutical co. has its headquarters in shanghai, with 25 branch offices in major cities across china's mainland. in 2001, the company established its largest manufacturing site in asia with a total investment of $170 million in wuxi. it sells several products, including seroquel and nexium. it has nearly 3,000 employees working in manufacturing, sales, clinical research and new product development. it has a presence in more than 110 targeted cities, with around 800 representatives. archived 19 december 2007 at the wayback machine bristol-myers squibb is one of the earliest to enter chinese market. johnson & johnson sells tynoline and other drugs in china. wyeth's best-seller in china includes calcium-d. roche launched a medical education campaign targeting 3,500 doctors in 20 chinese cities in 2004. schering-plough is a worldwide pharmaceutical company committed to discovering, developing and marketing of new medicines that can improve people's health and extend life. the company is the recognized leader in biotechnology, genomics and gene therapy. shanghai schering-plough pharmaceutical co., ltd, with a total investment of us 37 million, was founded on 5 august 1994 as a joint-venture, with shanghai pharmaceutical industry (group) corporation and shanghai corporation of pharmaceutical economic and technical international cooperation. bayer greater china is bayer's second largest single market in asia, accounting for approximately one quarter of regional sales. its interests in this region have grown steadily over the years, from step-by-step investment in the early 1990s to large-scale, world-class facilities today. bayer's investment in our integrated production site in the shanghai chemical industry park makes it evident that bayer regards greater china as one of its most important markets worldwide. bayer's greater china group operates in the market encompassing hong kong, taiwan, and china. the bayer group in greater china is led by management holding companies, with the subgroups and production joint ventures operating independently under their strategic direction. the country group speaker, dr. elmar stachels, leads the group in greater china. the greater china group employs ca. 2,800 people across a wide range of functions. companies and locations: bayer currently operates 18 companies in greater china. eight of them now have production facilities on stream in all business segments in which the company is active. local production accounts for an increasing proportion of sales. bayer china is engaged in a number of cooperation projects with some of the foremost research institutes and universities in china, to conduct research in the field of innovative materials, health care and crop science. it strongly cooperates with the chinese academy of science and affiliated institutes such as the institute of materia medica and the kunming institute of botany in yunnan with the aim to identify new compounds in the healthcare and crop science field. there are also a number of projects currently being started in polymers research. in addition, bayer also supports a number of chairs and programmes for research and teaching at chinese universities. these include the tsinghua-bayer public health and hiv/aids media studies program, a national platform designed to play a key role in china's public health system. furthermore, bayer healthcare supports a chair for healthcare management at the china european international business school (ceibs) in shanghai. boehringer ingelheim entered chinese market in 1995 and invested $25 million in a new facility in shanghai in 2002. its drugs treating respiratory diseases and cardiovascular diseases have established well in chinese pharmaceutical markets. hoechst marion russel established its china head offices in beijing in 1995 to manage operations in mainland china and hong kong. hmr has two joint ventures in china, hoechst huabei pharmaceuticals ltd in shijiazhuang, a heartland of the chinese pharmaceutical industry, and hoechst shanghai international pharmaceuticals ltd. eli lilly set up its first overseas office in shanghai in 1918 and returned to shanghai, china in 1993. its main facility is in suzhou, jiangsu province and main products include ceclor, insulin, and erectile dysfunction drug ed. abbott laboratories ltd sells a series of products including baby food in china. xian-janssen: among foreign-invested ventures in china, xian-janssen pharmaceutical, located in xi'an is regarded as a model. it has ranked among the top 10 joint ventures in terms of revenue since 1991, thrice landing in the number one spot. the company's success is