Recently, the 9th BIOCHINA (EBC) E-commerce Biotech Industry Conference was held at the Suzhou International Expo Center. Dr. Yu Qiang, founder and CEO of Shengshi Taike and Secretary General of Xinyao Club, participated in this conference and planned the "Small Molecule Innovative Drug Research and Development Forum". More than ten outstanding representatives from the industry were specially invited to discuss new technologies and targets of small molecule drugs, and explore with on-site guests how small molecules can play an important role in future drug research and development to better meet clinical needs.

After the meeting, Dr. Yu Qiang also accepted an exclusive interview in the live broadcast room of Yimao, sharing and exchanging his experience of participating in the conference, the development of the enterprise, and the future trends of the industry.

The following text content is a later excerpt and organization:

Yimao Live Room: How many times have you participated in BIOCHINA this year? Could you please introduce the theme and content shared during this conference?
Yu Qiang: For the second time, last year I participated as a sharing guest in the Peking University Alumni Entrepreneurship Forum. I participated in this conference as the founder of Shengshi Taike and the secretary general of Xinyao Club, and collaborated with the Yimao Industry Conference to plan the "Small Molecule Drug Innovation Research and Development Theme Forum". Today is March 14th (the day of the conference), and it is also a special holiday - π Day (International Mathematical Festival). The English mathematics for mathematics comes from Greek, which literally means "learn whatever you do". So today we have specially invited several outstanding representatives from the industry to learn about new technologies and targets of small molecule drugs together, and discuss with the guests how small molecules can play an important role in future drug research and development to better meet clinical needs.

Yimao Live Room: What have been the changes in your track over the past year, and what breakthroughs have your company made?
Yu Qiang: The recent emergence of the text generated video model Sora has pushed the discussion about generative artificial intelligence (AI) to a new height. At the same time, artificial intelligence (AI) has also brought tremendous changes to the field of drug development. Last year, many international pharmaceutical companies made significant investments in artificial intelligence technology, including equity investments, partnerships with AI pharmaceutical companies, and establishing internal research and development teams. Biotech also hopes to leverage advanced AI technology to screen and optimize candidate drugs with unprecedented efficiency, accelerating the discovery and development process of new drugs.

Another major change comes from the GLP-1 class of drugs that have become popular due to their "weight loss miracle drugs". From the perspective of differentiated competition and patient compliance, everyone is trying to expand the market space of GLP-1 drugs from peptide based injection drugs to small molecule oral drugs. At present, multinational pharmaceutical companies led by Pfizer and Eli Lilly are moving towards this "no man's land", and there are also a number of innovative pharmaceutical companies entering the domestic market. For example, our company has laid out a drug of this type in our research and development pipeline.
In the field of DPP-4, another popular hypoglycemic target that complements GLP-1, our company's original new drug Sengliptin (formerly known as Shenggliptin), which has been grinding for ten years, was accepted by the National Medical Products Administration at the beginning of last year. With its listing approaching, the company will also enter the stage of commercialization.

Yimao Live Room: How do you view the future development pattern of the biopharmaceutical industry?

Yu Qiang: There will be several obvious trends in the development of the biopharmaceutical industry in the future:
The first is the deep application of information technology such as artificial intelligence (AI) in the field of biomedicine, which was just mentioned. Artificial intelligence+biopharmaceuticals will be applied in many sub fields, such as new drug development, medical image analysis, disease prediction and prevention, intelligent diagnosis, precision medicine, etc., and it is expected to reshape the current status of biopharmaceutical research and industry.

Next is the update and iteration of small molecule technology, keeping up with the times, which is also the theme we discussed in today's special session. Especially thanks to the extensive exploration and application of artificial intelligence (AI) technology platforms in the field of small molecule drug development, people are able to more effectively discover new targets for small molecule inhibitors and design rational drugs, thereby accelerating new drug development. Therefore, in the future, small molecule drugs will still occupy a significant proportion in the development of new drugs.

Speaking of the exploration and application of artificial intelligence in the field of biomedicine, a sub forum on "Computational Medicine and Virtual Clinical Trials" was held today at the Suzhou Innovative Pharmaceutical Medicine Conference in China. Guests from various sectors, including government, enterprises, and hospitals, were invited to come together to share and discuss. Dr. Yu Qiang provided suggestions and suggestions on the industrial landing and cross-border cooperation of AI technology during the roundtable discussion.

The landing of AI technology industry requires the accumulation of sufficient high-quality data, which goes beyond successful case data. Failed case data may be more valuable for drug research and clinical trials. At the same time, data needs to achieve "same text, same track, same degree, same system, same ethics, and same domain". In the early stage of AI technology development, there are many flowers blooming, but it is necessary to establish unified industry standards as soon as possible to achieve data sharing. At the same time, unified industry standards also facilitate cooperation and communication between industries and cross industries. Secondly, the content of industry landing, such as virtual clinical, needs to be recognized by the National Drug Evaluation Center, so they should also accept these technologies as soon as possible. Finally, in addition to national medical insurance and patients, commercial medical insurance should also be promoted to pay for AI technology landing products, such as the application of AI technology in disease prediction and prevention, which can allow more healthy people to purchase commercial medical insurance.

When it comes to cross-border cooperation between AI technology and biopharmaceuticals, Dr. Yu Qiang believes that the first step is for both parties to have a deep understanding, in order to generate sufficient trust, and finally achieve win-win cooperation driven by the common interests of business cooperation.