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RTP's The Hamner bridges Pacific for multimillion dollar investment from China

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RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – For a change, a significant Chinese endeavor is making an investment in the U.S. rather than an American firm pouring billions into the land of the Great Wall.

The U.S. winner is the RTP-based Hamner Institutes for Health Sciences.

The group takes another major step forward in its growth today in announcing a multi-million dollar partnership with China Medical City. The Hamner-China Medical City Institute for International Drug Development will perform joint biomedical research.

Spearheading the Chinese part of the effort is Newsummit Biopharma, which will launch a business center in The Hamner’s Bioscience Accelerator. The accelerator is a new business incubator that has helped kick-start two businesses, including BioMedomics, which was launched by Chinese-American scientists.

Newsummit is a contract research organization and technology development company. China medical City is a life science park near Shanghai.

Gov. Bev Perdue and a host of other VIPs are expected to be on hand for the formal announcement this afternoon. The deal is the culmination of talks that began a year ago at an international biotechnology conference.

N.C. economic development officials as well as Hamner executives believe the deal could help bring more Chinese investment to the state. At the same time, the Chinese hope to convince N.C. firms to open operations in their homeland.

North Carolina’s Department of Commerce already has an office in Shanghai, and The Hamner says it will maintain a bioscience center in China Medical City.

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