The latest evidence that pharma can’t get enough of what China has to offer comes from two big drugmakers. In separate newswire reports today, Glaxo plans to double its R&D staff there to 350 people in the next few years. And Bayer is aiming for sales growth of more than 20 percent a year over the next five years to maintain its lead over larger global rivals in the country.

Glaxo currently employs 170 R&D staff in China and plans to boost that to 200 by the end of this year and to 350 within another year or so after that, Carol Zhu, head of operation management and alliances in Glaxo’s China R&D unit tells Reuters. Staff levels would remain fixed for three or four years after the increase, but Glaxo will expand its facilities to accommodate further increases thereafter.

Meanwhile, Bayer HealthCare, which started investing in China nearly 20 years ago, now operates four manufacturing facilities in the country and is scheduled to complete a $39 million expansion of a plant in Beijing making aspirin, diabetes drugs and other medicines later this year. Last week, Bayer completed the acquisition of the over-the-counter cough and cold portfolio of China’s Topsun Science and Technology Qidong Gaitianli Pharmaceutical, marking its first local acquisition in the country.

“Most market predictions say that China’s healthcare market will grow about 20 percent per year in the foreseeable future, and our goal is to grow above the market,” Liam Condon, managing director of Bayer’s China healthcare unit, tells Reuters.