By Andrew Jack in London

GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceutical company, plans to channel $100m by the end of next year into a neuroscience research centre in China which will become pivotal to its global drug development.

Ahead of GSK's first presentation focused on its emerging neuroscience pipeline drugs which takes place today, Moncef Slaoui, the chairman of research and development, has said the company will build a centre in Shanghai responsible for all the company's work on neurodegenerative diseases.

These include Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and multiple sclerosis.

"For us, China is not about outsourcing and cheap labour," he told the Financial Times.

"We don't want to give them the crumbs. It's about different science. We will link our fate to their fate. Within five to ten years we will be moving from 'made in China' to 'discovered in China'."

The investment by GSK marks the latest move by a large western pharmaceutical company into the country not just for low-cost manufacturing, clinical trials and the growing sale of medicines, but also to tap into its fast-expanding scientific research base.

Roche, Novartis, AstraZeneca, NovoNordisk and Sanofi-Aventis are all investing in research and development in China, with the majority concentrated in Shanghai.

The GSK decision comes after six months of research around the world, co-ordinated by Mr Slaoui and designed to identify "the next seedbed for future discoveries".

He said that "qualitatively and numerically, China came out on top", especially in oncology and neurology.

His evaluation was based on the fact that there are an estimated 63,000 holders of scientific doctorates in China, including 35,000 who trained in the west and have returned in recent years to their home country, as well as on publications in journals such as Science, Cell and Neuron.

GSK has a centre in the Pudong district of Shanghai, which will be moved to provide the basis for the new centre. It aims to hire 1,000 scientists within six years, making it a leading part of the group's expanding Centre of Excellence for Drug Discovery for neuroscience, itself one of four therapy areas on which Mr Slaoui plans to concentrate.

Neuroscience centres will continue to operate in Harlow in the UK for neuroplasticity to treat pain, cognition and epilepsy; and in Verona, Italy, for psychiatry, covering depression and anxiety.

In a research note yesterday, HSBC maintained its GSK rating as "underweight", estimating the company would be able to provide positive data on half of its 12 neuroscience experimental drugs in early stage proof of principle trials.