China’s drug industry pivots to AI-powered candidates to drive next wave of deals

China's drug industry is pivoting to AI-powered drug candidates to drive a new wave of deals, with 81 deals sealed in the first half of the year, nearly matching 80% of last year's total. China now accounts for 30% of new therapies under development globally, ranking second, according to a drug supervision official. CSPC Pharmaceutical Group recently partnered with AstraZeneca using its AI molecular design platform.

China’s drug industry pivots to AI-powered candidates to drive next wave of deals China develops 30 per cent of new therapies worldwide as it rises to the top tier in innovation efficiency, drug supervision official says artificial intelligence-powered candidates https://www.scmp.com/economy/china-economy/article/3355313/china-extols-potential-ai-guideline-marine-biopharmaceuticals?module=inline&pgtype=article to drive the next wave of transactions. China accounted for about 30 per cent of all new drugs currently under development worldwide, ranking second globally, according to Lan Gongtao, deputy director general of the Department of Drug Registration at the National Medical Products Administration. top tier globally in innovation efficiency https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3356232/which-company-could-become-chinese-pfizer-here-are-analysts-top-picks?module=inline&pgtype=article , Lan said at a forum over the weekend. In the first six months, the 81 deals sealed by June 30 had already equalled about 80 per cent of last year’s full total, according to Chinese state media reports on Monday. The deals covered 10 therapeutic areas, including oncology, metabolic diseases, immunology and neurology, the reports said. Buyers came from 20 countries and regions, mainly the US, the UK, France and Italy. CSPC Pharmaceutical Group https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3350956/multinational-pharmaceutical-companies-benefit-new-china-guidelines-analysts?module=inline&pgtype=article signed a new collaboration with AstraZeneca on July 2, leveraging CSPC’s proprietary AI molecular design platform to jointly discover and develop small nucleic acid drug candidates for two targets.