Healthcare and pharmaceutical firms across Europe are strengthening their presence in China, driven by the country’s high demand for medicine and the improving environment for research and development. Many European companies are drawn to China by the country’s R&D environment and focusing on local partners to make it easier to register in the market and gain approval for their research activities. The Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis opened an R&D center in Shanghai in 2007. Two years later, it invested another USD 1 billion (EUR 760 million) to add 1,000 researchers, making the center the third largest R&D base for Novartis behind their centers in Switzerland and the US. In 2011, Novartis acquired an 85% stake in Zhejiang-based Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co Ltd, in a deal that significantly increased Novartis’ share in China’s vaccine market.