Medicilon's "New Drugs + AI Innov Forum" was successful held

When AI accurately predicts the “difficult” protein 3D structure; When AI completes the new drug design within 21 days; When AI discovers a new mechanism of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drugs.  Cutting-edge technology is driving the innovation revolution.  With the empowerment of AI, how will the future of “smart” medicine evolve?

On June 18, the 12^th Shanghai Medicilon symposium “New Drug + AI Innov Forum” was held in Shanghai Disneyland Hotel.  The guests attending the forum included Academician and Experts of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Dr. Kaixian Chen, Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences; Dr. Li Jia, Academician of the International Eurasian Academy of Sciences; Dr. Michael Levitt, Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry & Academician of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States; Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder & CEO of Insilicon Medicine and Dr. Chunlin Chen, Founder & CEO of Shanghai Medicilon Inc.  In addition, the top scientists, entrepreneurs and innovators from the pharmaceutical industry with more than 100 domestic and foreign new drugs and AI ecosystem industry experts gathered together to witness the pioneering power of AI “smart” drugs.

At the opening ceremony of the forum, Dr. Chunlin Chen, as the organizer of the forum, extended a warm welcome to all the guests attending the forum and expressed sincere thanks to everyone for their long-term support to Medicilon.

During the meeting, more than ten new drug R&D industry leaders used keynote speeches, roundtable discussions and other forms to foresee the current status and trends of AI new drug research and development, to share the case study of AI Pharmaceutical, to analyze the positive impact of AI on the development of new drugs, and to point out the future development direction of AI new drug research and development.

At the beginning, two academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences，Dr. Zihe Rao and Dr. Kaixian Chenc,  stood at the overall height of the country’s development and expounded their thinking on AI pharmaceutical from an international perspective and brought the most cutting-edge voices in the academic community to the forum.

Hereafter, Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, Founder & CEO of Insilicon Medicine, delivered a keynote speech on “Seamless Integration of Artificial Intelligence and New Drug Development”.  Dr.  Zhavoronkov believed that the research and development of traditional drugs is time-consuming and costly, while new AI systems could accelerate the progress of drug candidates from multiple fields.  The latest natural biotechnology studies and existing tests have proved that AI accelerates the discovery of small molecule drugs.  In addition, Dr. Zhavoronkov introduced the entire development process of Insilicon Medicine’s AI molecule generation and design platform, Chemistry42.  Dr. Zhavoronkov also announced that Insilicon Medicine will develop Target X platform for various fibrotic diseases in the future.

AI has demonstrated its unlimited potential and has made considerable progress in the research and development of new drugs.  In the future, how will AI empower the research and development of new drugs?  To this end, Dr. Chunlin Chen had a deep conversation with Nobel Prize winner in Chemistry, Dr. Michael Levitt and Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, to explore the future of AI in the development of new drugs.

In the era of innovative drugs, CROs are riding the wind, but they are also facing many challenging issue such as “speeding up, reducing costs and increasing efficiency”.  Medicilon will challenge the issues of “10-year cycle, US$1 billion and a success rate of less than 10%.”

During the forum, Professor Shuangqing Peng, Chief Scientific Officer of Medicilon, shared a report titled “CRO+AI Accelerate New Drug Development”, which analyze the development trend of the CRO industry and the challenges that CRO facing in terms of quality, cost, and speed of new drug development.  Professor Peng also mentioned in the report that AI can not only shorten the time for drug development, but also improve the quality and effectiveness of new drugs.  As a one-stop drug research and development service platform, Medicilon has all the prerequisites for collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and that collaboration with AI companies is a significant milestone.

Dr. Xingquan Ma, VP of Chemistry in Medicilon, took PROTAC drugs as an example and presented a report titled “Frontier Technology AI+PROTAC in Drug Discovery”.  Dr. Ma pointed out that Medicilon has led AI into drug discovery. Dr. Ma also elaborated on the technical advantages of the PROTAC drug discovery research platform with actual cases and the application of AI on the Medicilon PROTAC platform.  Dr. Ma said that the discovery of target protein ligands and E3 ligase ligands are existing challenges, but AI could provide new ideas for solving the challenges.

During the roundtable session, Dr. Feng Ren, CSO of Insilicon Medicine, as the host, started the discussion with the guests with the topic of “The future opportunities and challenges of AI + New Drug “.

The guests at the forum have a deep insight into the current situation of new AI drug research and development and the future development trend. Their views collided with the most cutting-edge ideas of AI smart drugs and reached the conclusion: With the continuous integration of AI and new drug research and development, a series of bottlenecks such as high cost, high risk, and long cycle will be overcome.

Under the witness of the guests at the forum, Medicilon and Insilicon Medicine have reached a strategic collaboration.  Professor Peng of Medicilon and Dr. Ren of Insilicon signed the strategic collaboration agreement.  One is the leading one-stop integrated preclinical CRO in China and the other is the leader in the development of AI drugs. This collaboration allows the development of new drugs to be faster and one step closer to human health.

In addition, Medicilon signed a tripartite agreement with Insilicon Medicine and Kefeiping Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd; Medicilon signed another tripartite agreement with Insilicon Medicine and CGeneTech.  Medicilon signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Nanjing Licheng Biological; while Insilicon Medicine signed a strategic collaboration agreement with Real Biotechnology Co., Ltd.  All parties have high hopes for the collaboration, saying that this cooperation is a good opportunity to gather wisdom, complement each other in technology, and seek common development.  It is also a milestone in expanding collaboration areas and accelerating development, which is of great significance for achieving mutual benefit and win-win results.

From impossible to possible, it is the meaning of innovation, it is the value of CRO’s help to develop new drugs, and it is also the vision of Medicilon and Insilicon Medicine, the AI pharmaceutical pioneer company.  All parties in the research and development of new drugs need to integrate their advantageous resources in order to achieve the ambitious plan of China’s innovative drugs.

About Medicilon

Medicilon (stock code: 688202) was established in 2004 and is headquartered in Shanghai. Medicilon is committed to providing a full range of preclinical new drug research services for global pharmaceutical companies, research institutions and scientific researchers.  Medicilon’s services cover the entire process of preclinical new drug research, including drug discovery, pharmaceutical research, preclinical research and IND filing.  One-stop pharmaceutical service helps clients to accelerate the development of new drugs with strong project management and more efficient and cost-effective R&D service experience.  Medicilon has always been based on a global perspective, focusing on China’s innovation, and contributing to human health!