The Internationalization Trend of Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies and AI R&D Innovation Forum

Two forum themes, an inaugural meeting of Zhangjiang AI New Drug R&D Alliance Establishment, three keynote speeches, three rounds of roundtable discussion, a gathering of leaders and experts in the pharmaceutical industry, all of these are the collision of ideas between wisdom and foresight, a summits gathered by industrial leaders and experts, a grand event that foresees the future of China’s pharmaceutical innovation.

On October 12, the sub-forum of International Biopharm Industry Week Shanghai 2021 – Zhangjiang Life Science International Innovation Summit hosted by Shanghai Medicilon Inc. (Medicilon), Internationalization Trend of Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies and AI R&D Innovation Forum and Zhangjiang AI New Drug R&D Alliance Establishment Conference was successfully held in Shanghai.

01

AI R&D Innovation Forum

Zhangjiang AI New Drug R&D Alliance Establishment Conference

At the beginning of the forum, Dr. Chunlin Chen, Founder & CEO of Medicilon, as the representative of the organizer, expressed warm welcome and gratitude to the guests, and said that in the development of the global pharmaceutical industry, the impact of AI on the pharmaceutical industry is constantly deepening.  AI + drug R&D has ushered in great development opportunities.

Soon after, Kaixian Chen, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, delivered an opening speech.  As a pioneer in the emerging field of computer-aided drug molecular design in China, Academician Kaixian Chen pointed out that precision drug design combined with artificial intelligence and big data will become an important development direction for innovative drug research and development.  He hoped to gather AI innovation wisdom and power, and utilized AI to help more Chinese pharmaceutical companies find a way to breakthrough in drug research and development.

Under the witness of Academician Kaixian Chen and Academician Zihe Rao, there are 15 members to first jointly built and collaborate in the alliance, including Zhangjiang Group; Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study, Zhejiang University; Shanghai Medicilon Inc; inSilicon Medicine; Shanghai Hansoh Pharma; XtalPi; Apeiron Therapeutics; DP Technology; Silexon; Mingdu Technology; MindRank AI; Alphama Biotech; Harbour BioMed and Huawei Technologies.

The alliance aims to unite information technology and biotechnology (IT & BT) industry partners to jointly explore new opportunities in the AI + medical industry from multiple aspects by showing the new forces, new paradigms and new collaboration of AI to help drug R&D and to build an integrated and innovative industrial ecology.  Dr. Chunlin Chen expressed that through the establishment of the AI New Drug R&D Alliance; Medicilon will continue to discuss new collaborations in AI-assisted drug R&D with industry experts and leaders.

Dr. Chunlin Chen hosted a roundtable forum with the theme of “AI R&D and Innovation in the Pharmaceutical Industry”. Yue Sun, Deputy Director, Artificial Intelligence Division, Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology; Professor Ruhong Zhou, Shanghai Institute for Advanced Study, Zhejiang University; Tao Yuan, Chairman of Zhangjiang Group; Dr. Mingyue Zheng, Researcher and Doctoral Supervisor of Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Feng Ren, CSO & Head of Drug Discovery of Insilico Medicine; Dr. Jian Ma, Co-founder & CEO of XtalPi; and Zhen Gon, Head and Director of Computer Chemistry, Hansoh Pharma shared the application of AI in the pharmaceutical industry and jointly discussed the development model and business prospects of AI + pharmaceutical.

As the first CRO stock on the Sci-tech Innovation Board, Medicilon is one of the companies that paid attention to AI technology in the industry at the beginning.  Currently, Medicilon uses deep neural network machine learning technology to construct a BTK inhibitor drug design model.  Medicilon also commits to establishing a molecular design and screening platform for BTK inhibitor drugs, launching “CRO+AI” to accelerate the development of new drugs.

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International Trends of Chinese Pharmaceutical Companies Forum

In the second part of the forum, Academician Zihe Rao of the Chinese Academy of Sciences delivered a speech, encouraging the industry to gather the wisdom of experts from Chinese pharmaceutical companies to promote the innovation and development of China’s pharmaceutical science and technology and work together to make innovative drugs to overseas market.  Academician Rao emphasized that a keen grasp of the leading edge of science and technology is the key to future competitiveness.  It is a long way for Chinese innovative drugs to go to global market, but this is a “dream” which is reachable.

Dr. Hong Shen, Head of Roche Shanghai Innovation Center, Haijiao Wang, Managing Partner of GTJA Investment Group, and Dr. Hong Wan, VP of Medicilon Pharmacokinetics and Biological Analysis Department, delivered the speech in the title of “International R&D Layout of Innovative Pharmaceutical Companies”, “The Investment Approach of Innovative Pharmaceutical Companies from a Global Perspective” and “Challenges and Prospects of Evaluation of Innovative Drugs” respectively.  Based on their profound knowledge in various fields, the three experts explained the development path, investment path and future of innovative pharmaceutical companies from different perspectives and levels such as pharmaceuticals, investors, and CRO R&D.  Their meticulous and precise analysis, sharp and unique insights, and in-depth and simple speeches aroused a high degree of resonance among the guests.

With the implementation of policies such as CFDA’s accession to ICH, increased review speed, and volume purchases, the number of Chinese innovative drugs going overseas in the form of license out is on the rise.  Under the general trend, how can Chinese pharmaceutical companies find their anchor points?  After the keynote speech, under the host of Dr. Xuedong Dai, Executive VP of Medicilon International R&D Services, a roundtable forum with the theme of “New Drug R&D Strategy and Tactics from an International Perspective” took in-depth discussion.

Dr. Weikang Tao, Deputy General Manager of Hengrui Pharma, CEO of Shanghai Hengrui R&D Center; Dr. Jian Lin, Head of Asia Pacific External Innovation and Senior Director of DPDS Asia Pacific, Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceuticals; Dr. Xiangyang Zhu, CEO of Huaota Biopharma; Dr. Yuli Xie, Founder & General Manager of Wigen Biomedicine Technology and Dr.Ye Hua, Founder & CEO of Bio Nova Pharma expressed their opinions on the current status and trends of the global pharmaceutical development and China’s pharmaceutical development and strategic decisions.  They have made suggestions to promote the early realization of the “follow-run-lead” leapfrogging of Chinese drugs on the international market.

Only those who are strong will advance, and only those who collaborate will be far-reaching.  In the new era, it is imperative to explore a new mode of international collaboration between pharmaceutical companies.  To this end, the forum gathered senior experts in the industry to jointly explore a win-win international collaboration.  Professor Shuangqing Peng, Chief Scientific Officer of Medicilon, served as the moderator of this roundtable forum.

At the forum, Dr. Feng Bian, Executive Director of Global Drug Research and Development China Science Team of Bristol Myers Squibb; Dr. Haidi Hu, Founder & Chairman of Arctic Vision; Peijun Wang, Partner of Oriental Fortune Capital; Dr. Chenbing Wu, Founder of EpimAb Biotherapeutics and Dr. Nishimura Akira, Director of International Business Development of Luye Pharma Group expressed their insights and sparks of thinking for the topic of “New Model of International Collaboration Between Pharmaceutical Companies”.

The guests at the conference concluded that in the era of in-depth collaboration, how Chinese pharmaceutical companies integrate resources, seek timely change, and achieve win-win collaboration is the most important topic at present.  Through collaboration with CRO, pharmaceutical companies not only provide assistance for R&D innovation, but can also achieve a 40% reduction in R&D costs and save 10-20% of clinical trial time.  As the first batch of CRO companies established in Zhangjiang, Medicilon has been advancing on the road of promoting the international innovation of Chinese pharmaceutical companies. It has not only established an international R&D service department, and continued to assist the internationalization of pharmaceutical companies, but also provide global drug research and development to customers with high quality, high efficiency and cost-effective synthetic chemistry, drug design, and new drug candidate compound services.  Medicilon also continues to explore the construction of a one-stop biopharmaceutical preclinical research and development service platform.  In the near future, Medicilon will continue to increase cutting-edge technologies and continuously improve the layout of new platforms, such as AI drug design capabilities, PROTAC drug discovery technology, photochemical reactions, molecular building blocks, and FBDD, SBDD, and CADD drug screening platforms.

The successful of forum will better help Chinese pharmaceutical companies use AI technology to empower new drug research and development, and help Chinese innovative drugs to play a strong role in China on the international stage.  As a CRO dedicated to becoming an internationally competitive and influential biopharmaceutical preclinical comprehensive R&D service CRO, Medicilon hopes to assist aspiring pharmaceutical companies in the journey of internationalization of Chinese pharmaceutical companies to enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of pharmaceutical companies, so that the China Pharmaceutical companies could shine on the international stage and have Chinese new drugs to benefit the patients all over the world faster and better.