Singapore - Bayer Schering Pharma Asia-Pacific's sales grew 23 per cent to 910 million euros (1.3 billion US dollars) in 2008 despite the global economic downturn, the company's regional head, Chris Lee, said Tuesday in Singapore.

The growth rate, based on business numbers that excluded Japan, made the subsidiary of Germany-based Bayer Schering Pharma AG "one of the fastest-growing multinational pharmaceutical companies in Asia," Lee said.

The global crisis had "no visibly direct impact at the moment," he added, "but we are monitoring it closely."

As the company expected the pharmaceutical markets in the Asia-Pacific to show the highest growth rates in the future, Bayer Schering Pharma would strengthen its investment in the region with China becoming the growth engine, Lee said.

In addition to increasing the capacity of its production plant in Beijing fourfold, Bayer Schering Pharma also plans to establish a global research and development centre in China, its fourth in the world. The others are in the United States and Germany.

"In Korea, we will double our sales over the next five years," Lee said.

North Asia represented more than 70 per cent of Bayer Schering's business in the region with China alone having a business share of 48 per cent.

"Our strategy is to move a greater proportion of clinical trials to the Asia-Pacific to speed up clinical development," said Amar Kureishi, the company's head of medical affairs for the region. (dpa)