Eli Lilly continues to expand R&D investment in China

Eli Lilly logo is shown on one of the company's offices in San Diego, California, US, Sept 17, 2020. United States-based pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly will continue to pour research and development investments in China to accelerate local pharmaceutical innovations and benefit the patients, said a senior executive of the company. The company invests 25 percent of its revenue a year in R&D, which is industry leading with that investment level, and a key in R&D in China is the incubation of the early ideas, said Ben Basil, president and general manager of Lilly China, during an exclusive interview with China Daily when the company hosted the Lilly China Science Day themed "together to innovation" in Shanghai on Thursday. He said that, in 2011, the company launched the Lilly Asia Venture Fund, an independent venture capital fund designed to support healthcare innovation. At the event, Lilly China announced its intention to reach new strategic cooperation with five local innovative biotechnology companies, which Basil describes as having mutual goals with the company and overlapping between their core competency, therapeutic focus and ability to bear even better fruits to support the blueprint around Healthy China 2030, a national guideline aimed at promoting overall health.