China’s Ten-Department Plan Calls for AI to Accelerate Drug R&D

Summary

China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and eight other departments jointly issued the Pharmaceutical Industry Development 15th Five-Year Plan. The plan calls for faster deployment of frontier technologies and stronger interdisciplinary collaboration among pharmaceutical companies, universities, research institutes, and medical institutions. It specifically promotes the use of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, supercomputing, and computational medicine in drug research and development. The document also encourages new production models such as advanced manufacturing, space-based pharmaceuticals, and biomanufacturing, while expanding applications of gene editing, precision molecular delivery, cell programming and regulation, advanced omics, and next-generation brain-computer interfaces. It identifies synthetic artificial life systems, organoids and organ-on-chip systems, universal cell therapies, complex regenerative organs, integrated diagnosis-and-treatment radiopharmaceuticals, and xenotransplantation organs as key technology areas intended to create new growth opportunities.