When Samantha Du returned to her native China in 2001 with a mission to build a pharmaceuticals company, the move seemed like a terrible mistake.

当2001年杜莹(Samantha Du)带着创建一家制药公司的使命回到祖国时，她的举动似乎像是一个可怕的错误。

She had left behind a comfortable life in the US where she spent the previous 12 years, first as an academic scientist and later in roles of rising seniority at Pfizer. Back in China, she felt like an alien in her own country as she tried to start her venture.

她放弃了在美国的优渥生活。她在那里已经生活了12年，先是读博士，后来在辉瑞(Pfizer)工作，期间不断获得晋升。回到中国，当她设法自己创业时，她反倒感觉自己像一个外国人。

The nadir came during a business meeting in which the refreshments came in the form of hard liquor. She recalls: “Everyone drank until they fell asleep. Then they woke up and signed the contract. While they were sleeping I left the room and cried. I had left a great career and a big house in rural Connecticut. Now here I was negotiating with drunk people.”

最糟糕的时刻是在一次商务会谈期间——提神饮品只有烈性酒。她回忆道：“每个人都喝到睡着。醒来之后，他们就把合同签了。在他们睡着时，我走出房间哭了一场。我舍弃了一份很有前途的事业，还有恬静的康涅狄格州的大房子。现在，我却在和一群醉汉谈判。”

Several times she came close to quitting but was dissuaded by business partners. Fifteen years later, her persistence appears to be working. As, first, chief scientific officer of Hutchison China MediTech and now chief executive of Zai Lab, she is prominent among a wave of biotech entrepreneurs aiming to modernise China’s pharma industry and make the country a force in drug development.

好几次她都差点放弃，但是被合伙人劝止住。15年后，她的坚持似乎正在带来回报。她先是担任和黄中国医药科技(Hutchison China MediTech)首席科技官，现在任生物科技公司再鼎医药(Zai Lab)首席执行官。在一批有志于推动中国医药产业现代化并使中国在药物开发领域崭露头角的生物技术创业者中，她是突出的一员。

Most of them are “sea turtles” — the name given to Chinese professionals trained in the west who have returned home armed with qualifications and experience. All nine of Zai Lab’s top management studied at US universities. They have been drawn home by rapidly improving opportunities in China’s life science sector as Beijing pumps resources into its quest for a more innovative, high-value economy.

他们大都是“海龟（归）”——在西方深造过，带着文凭和经验回国的专业人才。再鼎医药的9名高管全都曾在美国大学里深造过。随着北京方面投入大量资源、寻求将中国经济打造得更具创新性和高附加值，中国生命科学领域的机遇快速增多，将他们吸引回国。

After a PhD in biochemistry at the University of Cincinnati, Ms Du joined Pfizer as a research scientist and ended up in charge of licensing some of the US group’s drugs around the world. She had not thought about leaving until a call came from Hutchison Whampoa, the holding company of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, inviting her to head a new pharma enterprise. “They said, ‘You have already achieved so much in the US. Why not come back and do something for China?’”

在美国辛辛那提大学(University of Cincinnati)获得生物化学博士学位后，杜莹加入了辉瑞担任研究科学家，最终做到主管该公司部分药物在全球的授权工作。她从未想过离开辉瑞，直至接到来自和记黄埔(Hutchison Whampoa)——香港大亨李嘉诚(Li Ka-shing)的控股公司——的一个电话，邀请她掌舵一家新的制药公司。“他们说，‘你在美国已经取得这么多成绩。为什么不回来为中国做些事呢’？”

With the resources of one of Asia’s richest men behind her, she criss-crossed China looking for assets to build a company around. It did not prove an easy task. Instead of hidden scientific gems, Ms Du found a domestic industry more interested in eking out margins from cheap generic drugs than investing in research and development. “The mindset was all about trading rather than innovation,” she recalls.

在这位亚洲富豪的雄厚资源支持下，她遍访中国各地，寻找成立一家公司所需的各种资产。事实证明，这并非一项简单的工作。杜莹发现，相较于投资研发、发现隐藏的科学宝藏，国内医药产业对于从廉价仿制药中赚取利润更感兴趣。“大家在想的都是如何进行交易，而非创新，”她回忆道。

Gradually, however, China MediTech, or Chi-Med, began building its own R&D capabilities in partnership with western drugmakers including Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca. The company floated on London’s Aim stock market in 2006 and is planning a dual listing on Nasdaq this month as it pushes two cancer drugs through late-stage trials, with five other products in earlier studies.

然而，逐渐地，和黄医药开始与礼来(Eli Lilly)和阿斯利康(AstraZeneca)等西方制药商合作，建立自主研发能力。2006年，该公司在伦敦证交所的第二板交易市场(AIM)上市，并计划本月在纳斯达克(Nasdaq)完成第二上市。该公司有两种抗癌药物正在进行后期临床试验，另外还有5种产品处于早期研究阶段。

Ms Du left Chi-Med in 2011 to take charge of Chinese healthcare investments for Sequoia Capital, the Silicon Valley venture capital firm, before founding Zai Lab in 2013. The company has licensed experimental treatments from big pharma partners including Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb, but Ms Du’s long-term focus is on developing homegrown drugs. Zai in January raised $100m in private finance from Sequoia and other big international investors and recently opened an R&D base in Shanghai. “We want to be the first Chinese biotech company with global standing,” says Ms Du.

杜莹于2011年离开和黄医药，之后加入硅谷风险投资公司红杉资本(Sequoia Capital)，负责在华医疗投资业务，在2013年创立再鼎医药。再鼎医药从赛诺菲(Sanofi)和百时美施贵宝(Bristol-Myers Squibb)等大型制药商伙伴那里，获得了一些处于临床试验阶段的药物的授权，但杜莹的长期目标在于研发本土药物。今年1月，再鼎医药从红杉资本及其他大型国际投资机构处筹集了1亿美元，并于近期在上海设立了研发基地。“我们希望成为中国首家享誉全球的生物技术公司，”杜莹说。

She is hardly alone in that ambition. BeiGene, a company founded by Xiaodong Wang, former professor of biomedical science at the University of Texas, last month raised $158m on Nasdaq to accelerate development of four promising cancer drugs.

拥有此等雄心的人不止她一个。前德克萨斯大学(University of Texas)生物医学教授王晓东创办了生物科技公司百济神州(BeiGene)，该公司上月在纳斯达克筹得1.58亿美元，用于加快4种很有前景的抗癌药物的研发。

Perhaps the most successful “sea turtle” in China’s life science sector is Ge Li, who earned his doctorate at Columbia University and became a biotech entrepreneur in the US before returning home to found WuXi AppTec 15 years ago. The company has since become the biggest Chinese contract research organisation, performing R&D and manufacturing for many of the world’s biggest pharma groups.

中国生命科学领域最成功的“海龟”，或许要数在哥伦比亚大学(Columbia University)获得博士学位的李革。他在美国时已是一名生物技术创业者，15年前回国创办了无锡药明康德(WuXi AppTec)。该公司如今已成为中国最大的研发外包机构，为许多世界顶级医药集团提供研发和生产服务。

About 5 per cent of WuXi AppTec’s 10,000-strong workforce was trained overseas.

在药明康德的1万多名员工中，约5%曾在海外深造。

Among them is Hongye Sun, who studied at Harvard and spent a decade with a Californian biotech company before being lured back to run WuXi’s genomic sequencing business. Mr Sun says the biggest difference with the US is the speed of decision making.

孙洪业就是其中之一。他曾就读于哈佛大学(Harvard)，在加州一家生物科技公司工作过10年，后来被吸引回国，负责药明康德的基因组测序业务。孙洪业说，这里与美国最大不同在于决策的速度。

“In America it felt like I needed 60 meetings to get something done, whereas here I need four.”

“在美国感觉需要开60次会议才能搞定的事，在这里只需要开4次会。”

WuXi AppTec has tried to harness the vigour of Chinese business culture while importing the quality standards learnt by its top scientists in the west. “We have 15 minutes of compliance training every morning,” says Mr Sun. “We tell our people, ‘We cannot afford a single mistake because if something goes wrong it could ruin the company in a day’”.

药明康德试图在利用中国商业文化活力的同时，引入公司顶级科学家在西方学到的质量标准。“我们每天上午要进行15分钟的合规培训，”孙洪业说，“我们告诉员工，‘我们一丁点儿错误都无法承受，因为如果出现错误，就可能让公司毁于一旦’。”

While returnees are leading the development of China’s biotech sector, they are increasingly drawing from an expanding local talent pool to build their businesses. China overtook the US in 2008 as the world’s biggest producer of PhDs, and the number has continued to grow rapidly.

虽然海归们引领着中国生物技术行业的发展，但他们正日益从不断扩大的本土人才库中发掘人才，来发展自己的业务。2008年，中国超过美国成为世界培养博士最多的国家，而中国博士的数量还在继续快速增长。

Critics question whether the increasing volume is matched by quality. Mr Sun says standards at the top Chinese universities are high, with fierce competition for entry. But he concedes that locally trained scientists can be too deferential.

批评人士质疑，在数量增加的同时，中国博士的素质是否跟得上。孙洪业说，中国顶尖高校的标准很高，入学竞争非常激烈。但他也承认，中国本土培养的科学家过于恭顺。

“I tell employees to argue with me and call me by my name, not my title. I tell them, ‘If you use my title, you are less likely to tell me the truth’.”

“我告诉员工可以跟我争论，直呼我的名字，而不是我的头衔。我告诉他们，‘如果你们叫我的头衔，就不太可能跟我说实话’。”

With soaring numbers of scientists, rising investment in R&D and growing demand for medicines from an ageing population, China has all the ingredients for growth in its biotech sector. Ms Du and others like her are aiming to replicate the success of US companies such as Genentech and Amgen, which suddenly appeared in the 1980s to become forces in global pharma.

中国生物技术行业增长的条件已经全部具备：科学家数量激增、研发投资增多、日益老龄化的人口对药品的需求日益增长。杜莹与其他像她一样的创业者的目标是，复制像基因泰克(Genentech)和安进(Amgen)等美国公司那样的成功，这两家公司在上世纪80年代横空出世，迅速在全球制药行业崭露头角。

As a service provider to local and foreign companies alike, WuXi AppTec is well placed to assess progress. Steve Yang, the company’s chief operating officer and a veteran of AstraZeneca, Pfizer and the University of California, urges caution.

药明康德同时为国内、外制药公司提供服务，应该有资格评估中国在制药领域取得的进展。但该公司首席运营官杨青(Steve Yang)呼吁保持谨慎。杨青毕业于加州大学(University of California)，曾在阿斯利康、辉瑞担任高管。

“There is a group of Chinese companies that are well positioned, but how many years did it take for the world to appreciate Genentech? It took decades. The race is on, but it’s still very early.”

“现在有不少中国企业发展势头很好，但基因泰克用了多少年才获得全世界的认可？几十年。中国已经加入竞赛，但输赢还远未见分晓。”