Eli Lilly and Company is planning to open a diabetes research center in Shanghai, China in the second half of 2011.

Heading up the center will be Bei Betty Zhang, a native of Shanghai and a diabetes expert who also serves as vice president of Research for Lilly Research Laboratories in China.

The center will initially employ approximately 100 scientists and support staff, the majority of whom will be hired from within China.

Lilly Research Laboratories president and Science and Technology vice president Jan Lundberg said that they were establishing this research center to meet the growing unmet medical needs of those living in China with diabetes.

Lilly's emerging markets business area senior vice president and president Jacques Tapiero saidthat by establishing a diabetes research center in China, Lilly will be better able to discover medicines that are well suited to the particular needs of patients with diabetes in China.

Lilly is also working with the China Diabetes Society (CDS) and the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (EFSD) to support collaborative diabetes programs between Chinese and European academic centers.