Big Pharma goes upstream--to China

WSJ piece on how Charles River Laboratories International is buying one of China's largest drug research firms, WuXi AppTec Company for $1.6B.

Charles River is a big US research firm (i.e., drug developer) that works with the Big Pharma producers.  Buying WuXi allows Charles River to access a lot of cheaper PhDs in China.  

Research costs continue to go up.  Meanwhile, one-third of all drug patents in the world will expire during the next few years, so Big Pharma and its partners have little choice but to access China's growing pharmaceutical industry.

I think this is a wave that will benefit the US:  exposure to, and integration with, a large but cheaper medical market.   We need the infusion of cost discipline and a rethinking of our very expensive methodologies, plus, quite simply, access to cheaper drugs and devices and--as is shown by "medical tourism"--procedures, which China will be pioneering or just redesigning as it seeks to extend more and better care to all its people.