China's unique position in discovery and preclinical research.

Fe at u re s B IO T E C H F O C U S When considering China as a sourcing market from an outside perspective, it is difficult to get an idea of Chinese company variation regarding competence and quality; it all looks homogeneous. However, some US and European companies are more successful with their ‘China strategy’ outsourcing, offshoring or joint ventures (JVs) than others are. To better-understand this variation we tried to determine differences between possible collaboration partners. To do so, we interviewed personnel from 20 different companies that all perform research in Shanghai. Offshoring and JVs with Chinese companies were included in the survey. We noticed important inter-company differences that should be considered when doing research in China.