Glaxo to double China R&D staff in next few years

By Sophie Taylor

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L), the world's second-largest drugmaker, plans to double its research and development staff in China to 350 people in the next few years, an executive said on Tuesday.

The company currently employs 170 R&D staff in China and plans to boost that to 200 by the end of this year and to 350 within another year or so after that, said Carol Zhu, head of operation management and alliances in Glaxo's China research and development unit. "We will not grow so fast as we want to grow our core competence right now. We are also limited by the facilities ... so we cannot host more people," Zhu told Reuters on the sidelines of an industry event.

Glaxo's "end to end" centre in Shanghai focuses on drug discovery, pretrials and clinical trials.

Zhu added that staff levels would remain fixed for three or four years after the increase, while the company would expand its facilities to accommodate further growth thereafter.

China is expected to become the world's fifth-biggest pharmaceuticals market by 2010, according to Research and Markets.

Glaxo's head of research told Reuters last year that China was set to become the new crucible of the global biotechnology industry, in the way that California was 30 years ago, and was key to its plans to step up its investment in biotech medicines.

The company had said it aimed to employ up to 1,000 people at its research centre in Shanghai by 2010.

Emerging markets are a focus for all major drugmakers, which hope to tap growing demand for modern medicines among the middle classes at a time when demand in developed markets is slowing.