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ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals Ltd. (Nasdaq:CXSP) wants to share an ancient Chinese secret with the world, one that could provide a knockout punch to a form of leukemia resisting other treatment.

Recent announcements from the Australian company with a California research base triggered interest in the American Depository Receipts of ChemGenex — and given hope to those diagnosed with one of the four main types of leukemia.

For U.S. investors looking at ChemGenex’s Nasdaq-traded shares, or at the shares on the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX:CXS), it could be difficult to calculate the biotech company’s financial health. The SEC filings lack quarterly updates, and few analysts follow ChemGenex, though two in Australia rate it a “buy.”

Its homeland shares are trading around $1 Australian. On the Nasdaq, ChemGenex has risen 80% since January. Shares hit a 52-week low of $8.58 last Aug. 28, and a high of $26.99 on Tuesday. ChemGenex closed at $23.50 on Friday.

ChemGenex Pharmaceuticals was formed in 2004 from the merger of AGT BioSciences of Melbourne, with ChemGenex Therapeutics of Menlo Park, Calif. It united AGT’s focus on genetic discoveries in treating cancer, diabetes, obesity and depression, with ChemGenex Therapeutics’ application of genomic technologies to cancer treatment. A late 2007 spinoff of its metabolic disease business focuses on cancer.

With headquarters in Geelong, Victoria, ChemGenex is guiding omacetaxine mepesuccinate, derived from the Chinese yew tree, through final patient trials. The substance received U.S. fast-track approval for clinical trials to treat chronic . . .

After a spate of food, drug and product safety recalls from China has left the nation's reputation in tatters among trading partners, one might think all the negative publicity would have shaken confidence in the country's pharma industry. It hasn't.

To allay Western concerns, Beijing, which wants a healthy pharmaceutical industry, has pledged $1.2 billion to clean up its food and drug safety problems. China's State Food and Drug Administration, which has a regulatory system similar to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is being reformed to improve safety standards and crack down on corrupt practices and drug counterfeiters (the Chinese media has reported the agency has yanked hundreds of manufacturing licenses and stepped up facility inspections).

Lower costs, top scientific talent and access to one of the world's largest and fastest-growing markets for prescription drugs have led every Big Pharma company—including Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE), GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK), Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. (NYSE: BMY), Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE: SNY), Britain's AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) and Switzerland's Novartis (NYSE: NVS)—to set up shop in China.

But international heavyweights aren't the only ones vying to tap China's rich drug market. In one niche in the bio-drug sector, a local player dominates rivals. 3SBio Inc. (Nasdaq: SSRX), a leading producer of high-quality, low-cost biopharmaceuticals, has cornered the market in China for the biologic drug Epoetin, known as Epo, which is used to treat anemia associated with chemotherapy and kidney dialysis by increasing production of red blood cells.

Similar to Amgen Inc.'s (Nasdaq: AMGN) wildly popular Eopgen, 3SBio's flagship Epo product, sold under the brand name Epiao, makes up 37% of the Chinese market in product sales. (Amgen's product, distributed in China under the name Espo, has 15% market share; Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche's Epo drug, Recormon, has 10%.) Epogen sales, which are growing 30% annually, account for about 70% of 3SBio's total revenue.

Tpiao, 3SBio's second best-selling product, is used to treat platelet deficiency, a side effect of chemotherapy treatment. Since its January 2006 launch, the drug has sold unchallenged with no known competition in China. Analyst Kimberly Lee of Pacific Growth Equities estimates the drug will rake in $4.8 million in fiscal 2007 and could see sales grow in the neighborhood of $29 million in five years.

Few would deny that the pro-green, anti-global warming movement has staying power. Unlike previous upsurges in be-kind-to-the-planet pushes, this time around, it does look as if things are different.

What hasn’t changed for investors, however, is that it’s still tough to make black-and-white decisions about which companies will be able to turn the green movement into gold. Particularly in the smaller-cap space, risks often remain high. Some companies have interesting but unproven technology, while others make great products that lack the necessary sales to reduce costs. And those in the green power space often face years of navigation through – and negotiating with – concerned regulators and slow-moving utilities.

This all goes a long way to explaining why analysts have taken a shine to SunOpta, Inc. (Nasdaq: STKL, TSX: SOY), recently trading at $11.91. Not only does SunOpta have proven revenues for its products, it operates in two distinct “green” sectors. Add in its share of a third business in an entirely unrelated industry, and you have a company that offers reduced risk thanks to its diversification and proven demand, yet retains some of the potential upside that comes with piggy-backing on not one but two emerging long-term trends.