The Hamner Institutes of Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park has signed a deal that could help North Carolina biotech companies do business in China.

The partnership with China Medical City, a RTP-size research park the Jiangsu provincial government is establishing about three hours north of Shanghai, also aims to bring Chinese investment and jobs to North Carolina.

The partners will create an institute for international drug development on the Hamner's campus to focus on preclinical drug development and compliance with U.S. regulatory standards. New technologies that are validated on the Hamner campus will then be transferred to China Medical City.

Newsummit Biopharma, a China Medical City partner, will establish its North American business center at the Hamner. The contract research company has business relationships with other science and technology parks in China. It's offices will be in the Hamner's bioscience accellerator, which opened last year and is home to two startup companies: BioMedomics, a diagnostics company started by a Chinese-American scientist, and b3bio, a Duke University spinoff.