GSK to end neuroscience R&D in China

It wasn’t long ago that GlaxoSmithKline’s Shanghai lab led the firm’s research efforts in neurological diseases, including Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, and Alzheimer’s. Now, after years of setbacks in China, the company is ending neuroscience R&D in Shanghai. “Following a portfolio review and prioritization, we have decided to close our neuroscience R&D center in Shanghai and move key programs to our global R&D hub in Upper Providence [Pa.] in the U.S., where they will benefit from colocation with other” programs, GSK says. GSK announced plans to invest in Shanghai in 2007, saying it would build China’s largest R&D center operated by a multinational drug firm. To focus on neurological disorders, the center was to be staffed by hundreds of scientists under the guidance of Jingwu Zang, a leading multiple sclerosis researcher. In 2013, however, GSK fired Zang after a paper he coauthored and published in Nature Medicine was found to contain