WuXi (WX): 'Secret weapon' in drug research

"WuXi PharmaTech (NYSE: WX) provides laboratory and manufacturing services for the drug and medical device R&D process," notes Jim Trippon.

In his The China Stock Digest, he explains, "Because Chinese researchers receive much smaller paychecks than their Western counterparts, Shanghai-based WuXi is able to lowering the cost of this research." Here's his review.

"We have often heard major Western pharmaceutical companies complain of the extraordinary cost of discovering and developing drugs.

"More costly than the laboratory infrastructure is the burden of paying for armies of highly trained, highly paid chemists, researchers, analysts and physicians. WuXi has become the secret weapon of many big name global pharmaceutical companies.

"China educates tens of thousands of engineers, chemists and technologists, and outsourcing that expertise has become a growth industry.