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December 17, 2007
Chinese and Indian Scientists Welcomed Home with Open Arms
The San Diego Union-Tribune offers an extensive look at the loss of top Chinese and Indian scientists, due to visa problems and more attractive research funding offers from their homelands:
. . . One-fourth of all patents filed in the United States are filed by foreigners, [Vivek] Wadhwa said.
"Those are the people we are sending back home, where they will compete with us," he said.
Returnees are coveted employees because they bring with them the experience of working in U.S. industry.
Yu Liang Huang has the experience on both sides of the Pacific that Chinese companies wanted and U.S. companies are just now growing to appreciate. After pursuing postdoctoral work at Ohio State University, he worked for several years as a consultant to British and U.S. biotechnology companies trying to do business in China and, later, at the now-defunct San Diego bioprocessing company Egen.
But when Huang decided to start his own bioprocessing company, Generon, he did it in his native China.
The company licenses early-stage compounds out of U.S. companies or research institutes or forms strategic partnerships that allow the clinical development of the drug in China. The goal is to complete early clinical testing and then bring the drug back to the lucrative U.S. market.
Labor costs in China are cheaper than in the United States, and the local and central governments of China offer monetary support, help making necessary business connections and assistance in securing licenses and other needed approvals, Huang said.
"It is hard to get to this level in the United States," the 45-year-old CEO said. "So right now we have to enjoy that advantage provided by China, and maybe later we can return to the U.S."
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