Global pharmaceutical enterprises are looking to boost business operations in China in a bid to make innovation faster and more relevant to the market.

Business executives attribute the upbeat prospects in China to a thriving digital landscape, strong on-the-ground demand for innovation as well as government efforts to cut red tape and encourage technological breakthroughs.

In July, German science and technology conglomerate Merck opened its M Lab Collaboration Center in Shanghai－an in-house facility that fosters new drug development and offers customized solutions from services to training.

Albeit being the ninth such hub worldwide, the one-stop, technology and training center houses 13 labs and claims to be the biggest of its kind for Merck. It boasts four new functionalities including supporting food and beverage security-related inspections as well as environmental industries that are exclusive to the China market.

"The M Lab means faster turnaround, lowered costs as no travel out of China is needed, access to a vast network of biologics and bio-development experts within Merck and enhanced customer convenience," said Steve Vermant, managing director of Merck Life Science China.

For instance, in a dedicated research lab into proteins－the fundamental building block of life sciences－the company provides solutions from protein preparation and analysis to a number of relevant research tools. These stand to provide customers in China with hands-on training and support them on method optimization and application extension.

The existing global network of M Labs has reaped gains across the value chain during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, said Ian Carmichael, vice-president and head of bio processing at Merck Life Science China.

"Some of the candidates for drugs or vaccines have been able to accelerate to commercialization because of the work that was done between Merck and the customers in the past. We can go from labs to clinical trials," Carmichael said.