AI-powered drug discovery boosted by Greater Bay Area integration, says Hong Kong-listed company

admin19 hours ago

0 0 3 minutes read

XtalPi Holdings, an artificial intelligence (AI) a drug discovery company based in the Greater Bay Area, is changing the biopharmaceutical industry by using artificial intelligence and robotics to transform traditional approaches to drug development.

The company’s own developed large language model (LLM), technology foundation ChatGPT– like generative AI services, has helped increase the success rate of chemical experiments to 90 percent from 20 to 30 percent, according to Zhang Peiyu, chief scientific officer of Shenzhen-based XtalPi.

“There are many good opportunities [for artificial general intelligence] in vertical fields,” Zhang told the Post at the China: Greater Bay Area 2025 conference in Guangzhou. “For the pharmaceutical industry, we saw great potential for using LLMs for specialty areas.”

Do you have questions about the biggest topics and trends from around the world? Find out the answers with SCMP knowledgeour new platform of curated content with explainers, FAQs, analysis and infographics brought to you by our award-winning team.

Zhang predicts that the integration of robotics and artificial intelligence will reduce drug discovery timelines to just one or two years from four.

Peggy Sito (left), Business Editor at South China Morning Post moderates a panel with Fosun Health CEO Hu Hang, Professor Li Hongsheng, Chief Scientist of Medicine Foundation Models at SenseTime Healthcare, MingMed Vice President Tu Fuquan and XtalPi Chief Scientific Officer Zhang Peiyu on the 15th. January in Guangzhou. Photo: Nora Tam alt=Peggy Sito (left), business editor at the South China Morning Post moderates a panel with Fosun Health CEO Hu Hang, Professor Li Hongsheng, Chief Scientist for Medicine Foundation Models at SenseTime Healthcare, MingMed Vice President Tu Fuquan, and XtalPi chief scientific officer Zhang Peiyu on January 15 in Guangzhou. Photo: Nora Tam>

Founded in 2014 by three quantum physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, XtalPi established its research and development base in Shenzhen a year later. Located in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperation Zone on the border between the two cities, the company has capitalized on local industrial policies to become a key AI player in drug development, serving nearly four out of every five major pharmaceutical companies worldwide.

Zhang said the company’s development is driven by regional synergies in the Bay Area scheme, particularly in talent acquisition, supply chain partnerships and urban fundraising.

The collaboration zone has attracted various industry players, including biotech and pharmaceutical start-ups, service providers and regulatory agencies, Zhang said.

XtalPi’s automated chemistry lab in Shenzhen, touted as the largest in the world, employs about 200 robots for AI-driven experiments, which require significant hardware support. The abundance of robotics and device companies in the Greater Bay Area has made things easier, Zhang said.

The company also benefited from Hong Kong’s status as a financial hub. It went public in the city last year, becoming the first to list under a new rule designed to attract strategic start-ups.

Geographical and technological advantages have positioned XtalPi for growth in the domestic and international markets. Globally, the company’s primary focus remains on biopharmaceutical innovation, particularly in the US, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. It is also expanding into materials science and renewable energy.

Currently, the company’s revenue is split between domestic and overseas markets, according to Zhang.

XtalPi is increasingly looking beyond the borders of China. In November, it partnered with Sinar Mas Multiartha, Indonesia’s leading financial services provider, to use quantum physics, AI and robotics to boost research and development of innovative products, including medicines and new materials, in the country.

China has rapidly integrated generative artificial intelligence into its biomedical industry over the past two years, with major pharmaceutical companies investing heavily to improve research and development efficiency. The chronic and autoimmune drug market is expected to be an important growth area in the country, with an estimated market size of US$20 billion by 2030, according to a JPMorgan report in May.

Despite these advances, Zhang noted that China still lags behind the US in terms of first-rate innovation and basic research in biomedicine.

“In the future, we need to develop drugs with new targets and new mechanisms,” Zhang said, adding that both Shenzhen and Hong Kong have a lot of good basic research results that have yet to be commercialized.

This article originally appeared in South China Morning Post (SCMP)the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for over a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore SCMP application or visit the SCMPs Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

Source link