Playing the China market

Look for more Chinese drug companies to go public on U.S. stock exchanges this year, as many of these companies hope to become aggregators in what is a fragmented market - and they like the idea of using U.S. shares as currency.

Tech companies, like search engine play Baidu.com (BIDU), have primed the pump for Chinese companies on U.S. markets. But tech company stories and their often U.S.-educated management have been much more accessible to investors than healthcare, noted David Parrot of Piper Jaffray, an underwriter on last month's IPO for Chinese generic company Simcere Pharmaceutical Group (SCR, Nanjing, China) (see BioCentury, April 23). ...