More than 100 new pharmaceutical jobs are to be created by Novo Nordisk as part of efforts to expand its business in China.
The pharma firm has announced plans to double the scale of its R&D centre in Beijing from 100 to 250 employees by 2015, allowing it to broaden its drug development activities in the area of diabetes.
Staff at the expanded facility will create new treatments, conduct pharmacological studies and undertake all parts of the drug discovery process, including clinical trials.
It strengthens Novo Nordisk's long-standing commitment to the Asian nation, having been the first international pharmaceuticals firm to establish an R&D presence in China in 1997.
Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen, executive vice president and chief science officer at the firm, said the move will "help Novo Nordisk to get access to the tremendous resource of talents, ideas and innovation in China".
Earlier this month the company announced that it will be divesting its share in ZymoGenetics in the coming months, as the business is being taken over by Bristol-Myers Squibb.