New Opportunities Amid the Great Transformation in Drug R&D | FreeS Fund Dialogue Session 2 Now Open for Registration

China's new drug R&D industry is seeing systemic new opportunities. New tools, algorithms, and technologies are empowering many stages of the drug development process — from target discovery and validation, to lead compound design, chemical synthesis route optimization, high-throughput catalysis and synthesis, and polymorph and formulation optimization. New technologies have room to prove their worth at every step.

In pharmaceutical R&D, the traditional approach emphasizes meticulous craftsmanship: screening known compounds through repeated experiments, then having researchers optimize candidates one by one. The new paradigm relies on various tools to boost efficiency and drive innovation. In automated organic synthesis, for instance, machines replacing humans for data collection ensures both data reliability and higher productivity.

So what exactly has changed — and what hasn't — in the biopharma industry in recent years? What does the industry's ecosystem look like? What new opportunities will emerge from this? And how can different types of talent get involved?

On November 14, the second installment of the "FreeS Fund Dialogue" biopharma livestream series — New Opportunities Amid the Great Transformation in Drug R&D — will feature Ning Xia, founder and CEO of ChemAIRS, and Yikai Wang, founder and CEO of COINN, joining FreeS Fund partner Lei Wang for an in-depth conversation online.

▍Topics they'll cover include:

• What new variables have emerged in drug R&D in recent years? How did the two founders spot their opportunities?
• Why did they start companies? What are their core competitive moats?
• How can emerging biotech startups coexist and win alongside big pharma?
• How do they view the prospects of new tool platforms and new biotech companies? From finding an entry point to becoming an industry player — how long is the road?
• How can talent from medicinal chemistry, organic chemistry, AI, and other backgrounds leverage their strengths and potential in new drug R&D?

▍How to register?

If you're interested in joining the Zoom webinar or signing up for our subsequent offline event "FreeS Open Day," scan the QR code on the poster or click the "Read More" link at the end of this article to register.

▍Why it's worth your time?

Since its founding in 2015, FreeS Fund has steadfastly believed in the development of biopharma innovation in China. Our biopharma investment thesis has evolved as follows:

• Against the backdrop of uneven distribution of medical resources in China, we invested in internet healthcare companies like Nuoxin Chuanglian and Hehuan Medical that address accessibility of medical services.
• Facing the challenges of long cycles and high costs in new drug R&D, we bet on platforms like XtalPi, METiS Pharmaceuticals, and ChemAIRS that use AI and other new technologies to improve R&D efficiency.
• We then began deploying in IVD, medical devices, and biotech innovation, investing in companies like Singleron Biotechnologies, Coyote Bioscience, and Bluepha.
• As the new drug R&D industrial chain has become increasingly complete, we have invested in innovative drug and novel therapy companies such as Novita, Logic Bio, Yanming Biotech, and COINN.

Synthetic biology, AI-driven drug discovery, and brain and neuroscience are FreeS Fund's investment priorities in frontier biotech — essentially, using experimentation or computation to digitize biological systems and processes.

We look forward to sharing our investment and entrepreneurship thinking in frontier biotech with you, alongside the CEOs in the FreeS family.

One of this event's speakers, Dr. Yikai Wang, founder and CEO of COINN, has unique insights into new drug R&D trends and has made the transition from R&D management to investor to entrepreneur. COINN uses first-principles thinking to advance new drug development in tumor metabolism. By efficiently integrating upstream and downstream partners and fully leveraging internal and external R&D synergies, COINN has significantly improved R&D efficiency while reducing trial-and-error costs and timelines.

Dr. Ning Xia, founder and CEO of ChemAIRS, holds a PhD in organic chemistry from the French Academy of Sciences (his advisor is the current president of the French Chemical Society) and has dual backgrounds in chemistry and computer science. He previously worked in R&D at Bayer in Germany and L'Oréal in Paris. In 2018, he founded ChemAIRS and serves as CEO. The company has grown into a leading player in AI-assisted chemical synthesis, with products already deployed at top global pharmaceutical companies.

Another speaker, the moderator for this conversation, is Dr. Lei Wang, partner at FreeS Fund, who has long focused on the biotech and healthcare industry. Before joining FreeS Fund, Wang worked at IMS Health, the largest pharmaceutical consulting and market research firm in the U.S., providing strategic and tactical consulting for international and Chinese pharmaceutical companies, and spent nearly a decade at pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies in the U.S.

Scan to register 👆

On November 14, you can watch the livestream via Zoom, Baidu Finance, Sina Tech, Sina Finance, FreeS Fund's WeChat video channel, and other platforms. See you there!

▍Further Reading

A curated collection of biopharma articles (click the blue link to access)

This collection documents FreeS Fund's thinking on the biopharma industry. We review nearly six years of biopharma investment practice; explore the fundamentals, present state, and future of gene therapy; analyze the pandemic's impact on the biopharma industry; and feature founders in biotech sharing the idealism and reality of entrepreneurship.

The collection also includes past contributions from our two guests and moderator:

1. FreeS Report 23: Crossing the "Valley of Death": Systemic New Opportunities in Small-Molecule New Drug R&D (Author: Yikai Wang)

2. Standing at the Forefront of Gene Therapy | FreeS Research (Author: Yikai Wang)

3. The Hammer and the Dance: Investment Opportunities in Healthcare's Next Wave Amid the Pandemic | FreeS Research (Author: Yikai Wang)

4. Why Is AI Drug Discovery So Hot, and Why Now? | FreeS Biopharma VC Summit Transcript (Guest: Ning Xia)

5. Early-Stage Medical Aesthetics Investment Moves Toward Underlying Technology | FreeS Research (Author: Lei Wang)

6. FreeS Report 16: The Truth About Early-Stage Healthcare Investment and China Speed | FreeS Research (Author: Lei Wang)

Looking forward to more interaction with you on November 14.

Scan to register 👆

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