As the BBC News points out, Swiss pharmaceutical firm Novartis is planning to build a new $100 million research center in Shanghai:

“Novartis chief Daniel Vasella said the center was a symbol of the ever growing importance of China and our willingness to trust the government. “The level of scientific expertise in China is rising rapidly,” he said. The 410,000-sq ft center will employ 400 scientists, with construction set to start in mid-2007. The lab will combine modern drug research with traditional Chinese medicine, with an initial focus on the causes of cancer.”

The interesting part of the announcement is the “traditional Chinese medicine” angle. If you’ve ever walked around Chinatown in a city like New York, it’s impossible not to miss the amazing number of stores and kiosks specializing in traditional Chinese medicine. Presumably, we’ll now have representatives from Big Pharma poking around those stores to see if there’s anything interesting they might be able to commercialize on a global basis. Anyway, there’s a great caption to Lunanaut’s photo on Flickr:

“This is a traditional pharmacy– with baskets of dried seahorses in front, packages of preserved mushrooms and ginseng root on the shelves, and glass jars filled with odd-shaped, odd-smelling mystery items. It’s all still a mystery to me, but an integral part of local culture– all these prescriptions being filled will soon be brewed up and slurped down in the pursuit of renewed health. Makes American homeopathy look positively postmodern.”

[images: Daniel Vasella and Filling Prescriptions]

In the weeks leading up to the FORTUNE Innovation Forum in New York City on November 29-30, the Business Innovation Insider is pleased to present a regular series of thought pieces with innovative thinkers in business and academia. At the FORTUNE Innovation Forum, entrepreneur Paul Budnitz, the president and founder of Kidrobot, will be leading a workshop on how to line up funding for innovative new ideas. (Kidrobot is now the world’s premier creator and retailer of limited edition art toys and apparel - if you’re starting work on this year’s holiday wish list, you should check out the online Kidrobot store)

In this Business Innovation Insider exclusive, Paul Budnitz outlines the origin of the designer toy movement in the USA and explains how Kidrobot helped to catalyze and support this movement:

“When I started Kidrobot in early 2002, designer toys were mostly available in Japan and Hong Kong. In the USA the toys were mostly on eBay, and they were very hard to find and very expensive. I began to import these toys, but at the same time, we began to design and manufacture our own toys. I think what really popularized the movement was our willingness to work with USA artists, and to create a web site, stores, and an artist/customer community around that.

Kidrobot’s toy line is essentially a collaboration between myself and the Kidrobot staff, and US designers, graffiti artists, fine artists, fashion designers, etc. What is unique about Kidrobot is the depth of that collaboration — in general artists work with us to produce something in our style, not necessarily the other way around.

We have produced toys made with designers such as Frank Kozik, Dalek, Gary Baseman, Visionaire, Gucci, Marc Jacobs, Jil Sander, Paul Smith, Paul Pope, Mori Chax, Kenzo Minami, Cycle, Lemar & Dauley, Swizz Beatz, Wildbrain, Gorillaz, and many others.

In four years Kidrobot has grown from a web store and retailer into manufacturing and wholesale. We’ve also grown from toys to a full clothing line, into animation, and print. We also have designed a floor in Peter Gatien’s new mega-nightclub in Toronto, and have a series of limited edition cars coming out with Volkswagen this fall.”

[image: Paul Budnitz of Kidrobot]