China - August 26, 2025 Storyline China's drug industry utilizes AI for smarter, faster, safer drug trials, production [Voice_over] New data shows that China's innovative drug industry has been growing exponentially in the first half of 2025, thanks in large part to artificial intelligence assisting in trials and testing. So far this year, The National Medical Products Administration approved 43 innovative drugs for market release, a 59 percent increase from the same period last year, with medicines developed domestically accounting for 93 percent of those released. In key areas such as antibody screening, molecular design, data extraction, and interpretation, AI is significantly shortening R&D cycles and improving success rates. An employee at one biomedical firm in Suzhou says they're working on drugs to treat cancer, autoimmune and metabolic diseases, and eye related disorders. [Sound_bite] Qian Lei, Chief R&D Officer, Innovent Biologics: "In the process of new drug development, we have extensively applied AI across the entire R&D process—from data extraction and analysis to biomarker testing and data interpretation. AI plays a crucial role. We've also invested more in human resources and new technology platforms." [Voice_over] Additionally, Chinese pharmaceutical companies are making breakthroughs in drug production capacity. Real-time quality control and flexible manufacturing capabilities provide dual guarantees for the drugs, allowing more to be made at a higher quality. [Sound_bite] Yin Zeyang, Senior Vice President of Production, Innovent Biologics: "We've established an automated control system and a fully intelligent production line, integrating thousands of high-precision sensors and actuators, increasing production efficiency by over 50 percent compared to traditional lines. Our coded transport containers and temperature-monitoring systems ensure stable quality from factory to patient." [Voice_over] According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the value of China's drug market last year was worth more than 13 billion U.S. dollars. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]