Investing In China: Views from Windhover's PharmAsia Summit

It's common wisdom within the halls of Big Pharma to look East--especially to China--for future revenue growth as increasing regulatory oversight and reimbursement hurdles in the US and Europe create commercial challenges. With a booming economy that slowed but didn't stall during the most recent global recession, China has 1.3 billion people who are increasingly able to afford new medicines, even as that country's government crafts health care legislation that would mandate universal coverage by 2020. Changes in patent law to closely mirror Western standards make doing business in China considerably less risky than just a few years ago, while the significantly lower labor costs offer the opportunity of arbitrage.

For all these potential benefits, however, venture capitalists haven't rushed to invest in China-based start-ups. Nor have biotechs necessarily thought...