Not much!
WuXi Pharmatech Inc., a decade-old drug research company in the industrial outskirts of Shanghai, will employ more chemists next year than Pfizer Inc., the world's largest producer of medicines.
``You have to have your own discovery capabilities, but you also increasingly need to source externally in order to access science and innovation,'' said James Ward-Lilley, president of AstraZeneca's operations in China, in an interview in his Shanghai office.
In China, personnel and supplies can cost 60 percent less than in the U.S., according to Boston Consulting Group. A two- month primate study to test a drug's toxicity may run $20,000 there, a 10th as much as in the U.S., according to the consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP in New York.
Entry-level scientists at WuXi make $35,000 a year, while Pfizer pays equivalent workers in the U.S. more than $90,000. The lower wages mean WuXi can hire more people and get jobs done faster.
It employs 2,500 scientists and chemists.
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