A drug discovery project supported by Ministry of Science and Technology of China and Ministry of Science and Innovation of New Zealand together with Maurice Wilkins Centre and Health Research Council of New Zealand  was formally launched recently in Shanghai and Auckland simultaneously. This bilateral research project entitled “Developing new anti-cancer drugs against genetically defined targets” is jointly administered by the National Center for Drug Screening (NCDS)/Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences and University of Auckland (http://en.cncl.org.cn/2681/55149/133797.shtml) . Key scientists from New Zealand, Dr. Christina Buchanan and Ms. Woo-Jeong Lee, carried out related experimental studies in Shanghai with their Chinese counterparts between June 4 and June 12, 2014, while Dr. Dehua Yang, a principal participant from NCDS, is presently paying an academic visit to University of Auckland arranged by the Royal Society of New Zealand.