GlaxoSmithKline, the UK-based pharmaceuticals company, plans to channel $100m (£48.9m) by the end of next year into a new neuroscience research centre in China which will become pivotal to its global drug development efforts.

Ahead of GSK’s first presentation focused on its emerging neuroscience pipeline drug on Thursday, Moncef Slaoui, the chairman of research and development, has resolved to build a centre in Shanghai responsible for all the company’s work on neuro-degenerative diseases including 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 10 years we will be moving from ‘made in China’ to ‘discovered in China’.”

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

Roche, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi-Aventis and other companies are also investing significantly in R&D in China, with the majority concentrated in Shanghai.

The GSK decision comes after a six-month analysis around the world co-ordinated by Mr Slaoui designed to identify “the next seedbed for future discoveries”. He concluded that “qualitatively and numerically, China came out on top”, especially in oncology and neurology.

His evaluation was based on an estimated 63,000 scientific PhDs in China, including 35,000 who trained in the west and have returned in recent years to their homeland, as well as publications in leading academic journals such as Science, Cell and Neuron.

The GSK centre, based in Pudong and soon to be moved to the Pushi district, 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 focus.

GSK’s existing neuroscience research centres will continue in tandem – Harlow for neuroplasticity dealing with pain, cognition and epilepsy; and Verona, Italy for psychiatry, covering depression and anxiety.