SHANGHAI, China, Feb. 6, 2006 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- On January 18, 2006, more than 200 pharmaceutical specialists, venture capital executives, and life sciences academics from China and abroad attended at China Life Sciences Partnering Forum in an auditorium at WuXi PharmaTech to explore opportunities for partnership between Chinese and Western companies. The forum, organized by Burrill & Company and hosted by WuXi PharmaTech, is the second in a series of three. The first of the series was in Beijing and hosted by CapitalBio and the last will be in Shenzhen and hosted by ChipScreen.

Dr. Ge Li, Chairman and CEO of WuXi PharmaTech, kicked off the forum with a presentation in which he cited renowned New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman's thought provoking observation that the world is now flat not round as discovered by Christopher Columbus. Globalization propels the outsourcing and collaborations among countries, companies and individuals. India, China and so many other countries enabled by the convergence of technology and events have become part of the global supply chain for services and manufacturing, creating an explosion of wealth in the middle classes of the world's two largest nations and giving them a huge new stake in the success of globalization. With that prelude, Dr. Li talked about how WuXi PharmaTech positions itself and what advantages China and WuXi PharmaTech can offer in the flattening world of pharmaceutical R&D.

Other keynote speakers at the Shanghai forum included Mr. Yaolun Zhang, Vice Director, Pudong New District, Shanghai, Mr. Qingsheng Zhu, former Vice Minister of Health Ministry, Ms. Caroline Kovac, General Manager of IBM Healthcare and Life Sciences, Ms. Nahed Ahmed, Vice President of Amgen, and Mr. Jonathan Wang, General Manager of Burrill & Company Greater China. Their speeches and panel discussions centered on many hot debated issues, such as the rising cost of developing new drugs, the challenges facing the healthcare industry, opportunities presented by the aging population, investment in the Chinese market, the rise of China's pharmaceutical industry, and leveraging the most efficient drug development resources worldwide.

The forum also served as a matchmaking platform to find business partners among participating companies, such as Burrill & Company, Deloitte, IBM, Amgen, Lilly, Perkins Coie, Roche, TEDA, Baxter Healthcare, and Epitomics.