Collaboration needed for China to speed up drug innovation

From the 1950s to the 2020s, China has developed from generic drug making through drug development using targets or mechanisms found in the West, to first-in-class new drug innovation, experts told the Fudan Summit on Drug Innovation at Shanghai's Zhangjiang High-Tech Park on Friday.

Although technology develops quickly in China, there are some major shortcomings impacting new drug innovation – not solid-enough basic research, an incomplete innovation chain, and an inadequate distribution system for a healthy innovation-boosting ecosystem covering policy, research and development, transformation, and sponsorship, said Li Cong, dean of Fudan University's School of Pharmacy.

"It is important to establish a network consisting of government, university, capital, big pharmaceutical companies, and innovative enterprises to speed up new drug research, development, industrialization, and clinical use," Li said.

Fudan is creating an AI-based new drug development system by using data from affiliated hospitals, its medical schools, and institutes for target detection, chemical making, new drug development, clinical trials, drug approval, and mass production. Relevant government bodies, pharmaceutical enterprises, investment facilities, and industrial parks in Zhangjiang are actively involved in the process.

"We have deep cooperation with pharmaceutical companies to cultivate talents with both academic and practical ability, while senior officials and engineers are hired as part-time professors in our school," Li said.

To further boost drug innovation and talent training, the New Drug Innovation Industry Institute was unveiled on Friday.

Through deep cooperation between the Shanghai Medical College Fudan University and Shanghai's biomedicine industry, the institute will study a new model of talent training for new drug development and build a life-long study platform for new drug R&D.

It will integrate resources from university, enterprises, research institutes, and government entities to cultivate more and better pharmaceutical professionals, officials said.