Box 2. Box 2 Case study: FusoGen Pharmaceuticals
From the following article
Chinese health biotech and the billion-patient market
Sarah E Frew, Stephen M Sammut, Alysha F Shore, Joshua K Ramjist, Sara Al-Bader, Rahim Rezaie, Abdallah S Daar & Peter A Singer
Nature Biotechnology 26, 37 - 53 (2008)
doi:10.1038/nbt0108-37
FusoGen Pharmaceuticals, founded in 2002, is an R&D-based biotech company that uses computer-based drug design to develop novel therapeutics that inhibit viral fusion. FusoGen's leading experimental drug is sifuvirtide, a 36-amino-acid peptide that is targeted to inhibit the HIV fusion protein gp41. Phase 1 and 2a clinical trials of sifuvirtide have been completed in China and phase 2b trials are currently underway. If sifuvirtide is ultimately approved, it will be only the second fusion inhibitor to reach the market—joining Roche's Fuzeon (enfuvirtide); as a market follower, its lower cost, improved efficacy and lower dose may provide competitive advantages over Fuzeon (which requires a higher dose and thus has a propensity to cause unsightly welts at the injection site). Sifuvirtide is patented in the United States and China, and patents in the EU and Japan are pending.
Additional innovative therapeutics in FusoGen's pipeline are small-molecule compounds against HBV and HCV. Both inhibitors were similarly identified through computer drug design and are at early stages of development. New therapies for HBV and HCV are needed worldwide, as both of these diseases present a considerable global health burden, with infections levels in China alone of 
120 million and 30 million people, respectively.
FusoGen was founded by Jason Genfa Zhou, a 'sea turtle' who returned to China after completing his PhD studies at Florida State University (Tallahassee, FL, USA) and postdoctoral training at Harvard University (Cambridge, MA, USA). The company has been supported through funds from the central government (863 grants) and local Tianjin government.
FusoGen is looking to grow through partnerships both in and out of China that bring in special expertise to advance its R&D, preclinical and clinical work. FusoGen has 50 employees and has recently built FusoLab, a research center in Beijing to tap into additional scientific talent. The company is currently investing $25 million in the construction of FusoBiopark in Tianjin, which will include administration, R&D and manufacturing facilities.