The End of Copycat China: The Rise of Creativity, Innovation, and Individualism in Asia

3The Innovation Curve Stage 2 ContinuedInnovation for China, Biotechnology, and Health Care

I got lost driving to Dr. Shi Lei's office located in Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Shanghai. The map on my GPS I had bought the year before was already outdated—many of the roads I was driving on and the buildings I was passing had gone up in the past 12 months.

I messaged Shi via WeChat, saying I was lost. He responded he would come down to meet me in a hotel parking lot next to his office. I eventually found it. As I got out of the car, I realized Shi was much taller than I had expected—about 6′1″ in a country where the average height for adult males is just less than 5′7″. He had his coat pulled tightly around him as rain started to fall in plump, muddy droplets of water mixed with air pollution particles.

Shi is the director of antibody research and head of the China operations for RuiYi, a biotechnology start-up Professor Raymond Stevens of the Scripps Institute founded in San Diego. I had set up an appointment with Shi to hear his ideas about innovation in the biotechnology sector in China.

Copyright infringement remained a problem in biotech and health care, just as in the Internet sector. Newspaper headlines always touted police raids on shipments of counterfeit medical products, such as Viagra and condoms. French customs at the port of Le Havre announced in February 2014 that they ...