The ChinaBio® Partnering Forum, the first partnering forum for China life science, will be held in Shanghai in June 2009; Royal DSM made a $110 million investment into North China Pharmaceutical Group; Nanjing Chuanbo Biotech established a subsidiary in the UK; BioDuro and AstraZeneca formalized an extension of their drug discovery collaboration; Bayer HealthCare will collaborate with Beijing’s Tsinghua University; BMP Sunstone (???????????) announced its 2008 revenues climbed 350% to $114.9 million; China Pharma Holdings said its 2008 revenues rose 54% to $51 million; but Tongjitang Chinese Medicines (?????) reported that revenues dropped 36% in Q4 to $16.9 million. More details...

Stock Symbols: (AMS: DSM) (SHA: 600812) (NYSE: AZN) (Frankfurt: SCH) (NSDQ: BJGP) (OTCBB: CPHI) (NYSE: TCM)

Bayer HealthCare AG of Germany has signed a wide-ranging collaboration agreement with Beijing’s Tsinghua University. The two entities will establish the Bayer-Tsinghua (Institute of Biomedicine) Research Center of Innovative Drug Discovery. Serving as Director will be Yigong Shi, PhD, a renowned structural biologist with expertise in protein X-ray crystallography and a focus on apoptosis. Dr. Shi is currently Director of the Department of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology and Vice Dean of the Institute of Biomedicine of Tsinghua University. More details...

Stock Symbol: (Frankfurt: SCH)

Roche Holding AG is considering a new model of entrepreneurial partnership in China, spinning off compounds to employees who wish to become entreprenuers; Shanghai Zhangjiang and Sundia MediTech (???????????????) formed an incubator that offers Intellectual Property, CRO and Venture Capital services; after screening over 120,000 patents filed between 2000 and 2008, ChinBio's researchers showed that China is developing new molecular entities at a rapid rate; Bayer Schering of Germany will spend $129 million to build a global R&D center in Beijing; Sundia MediTech (???????????????) and Xcovery said their drug discovery collaboration has already yielded four pre-clinical candidates; the SFDA has built a stockpile of human bird flu vaccine, produced by Sinovac Biotech (????????????); Shengtai Pharmaceutical reported disappointing results for its Q2, which ended December 31, 2008; and China Bio-Immunity has recovered most of the rabies vaccine that contained an unapproved adjuvant. More details...

Stock Symbol: (Switz: ROG) (Frankfurt: SCH) (NYSE Alternext US: SVA) (OTCBB: SGTI) (OTCBB: CHHB)

Bayer Schering Pharma of Germany will invest $129 million to build a global R&D center located in Beijing. The investment will take place over five years. For Bayer Schering, China is the third largest market, and the company already has already located R&D centers in the US and Europe, its two markets that are larger than China. The Beijing center will be very mindful of the clinical profile and medical needs of Asian patients, though the center is not exclusively devoted to the Asian market. More details...

Stock Symbol: (Frankfurt: SCH)