Ea­ger to think big­ger than Chi­na, As­cle­tis woos top Mer­ck ex­ec to run R&D

Hav­ing paved the way in de­vel­op­ing and com­mer­cial­iz­ing Chi­na’s first home-cul­ti­vat­ed he­pati­tis C drug — with some help from a multi­na­tion­al phar­ma part­ner — As­cle­tis has now set its sight on a high­er goal: To move from first-in-Chi­na to glob­al first-in-class drugs.

High­light­ing its am­bi­tion, the Hangzhou-based biotech has scooped Zhengqing Li, who has run Mer­ck’s drug de­vel­op­ment in Chi­na for the past eight years, to be­come its chief med­ical of­fi­cer and pres­i­dent of R&D in the coun­try.

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