Michelle Xia spent a dozen years in research and biotech in the U.S. before relocating back to her native China for a job at American life sciences contract research company Crown Bioscience. It didn’t take long for her to realize that patients in her home country needed to wait a much longer time than Americans to get the newest and best #medicines. Back then, she says, it took eight to ten years for drugs that had been approved in the U.S. to become available in China. “There was not much innovation in China” in drug development then, Xia recalls. #China was producing copies of U.S. drugs, but with a big lag time. Armed with the ambition to change that and ample industry experience, she launched a #biotech company in 2012 with two former Crown Bioscience colleagues and one other cofounder in the southern city of Zhongshan–west of Hong Kong. She took the lead as CEO, chairwoman and president of the startup, which they named Akeso–after a Greek goddess of healing. Now, five years aft...