AstraZeneca has entered into a partnership with Chinese based Pharnarcon, which will see the pharmaceutical giant increase its team in China through additional employees from Pharmaron.

Pharmaron will add scientists to AstraZeneca’s research and development team in order to increase development and drug discovery speeds.

Despite poor stock performance in comparison to its European rivals AstraZeneca’s sales increased by 20 percent in China during last year, in an expanding market that is expected to be worth $165 billion by 2016.