Not just a big market but an innovation source

More and more foreign firms, investors swear by China's economic prospects

When Canada's Alex Zhavoronkov established drug discovery company Insilico Medicine in 2013 with artificial intelligence as the driver of its operations, he based the company's major research and development facility in Shanghai. Its key corporate offices are based in both Hong Kong and New York.

The business-friendly climate of Shanghai, China's coastal economic hub, he figured out, will aid the high-tech startup's growth and development.

Zhavoronkov, now CEO of Insilico, knew Shanghai is rich in top AI talent, high-quality services from local contract research organizations, or CROs, an energetic entrepreneurship culture, and constantly improving regulatory environment.

Shanghai, he said, lived up to the expectations. Insilico has nominated eight preclinical drug candidates since 2021, which were discovered or designed using its proprietary AI platform in a variety of disease areas, including fibrosis, inflammation and cancer.

Besides, the company's first AI-discovered drug candidate, for the treatment of a rare and chronic lung disease called idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, has finished dosing subjects for a phase-1 clinical study in China.

"With the preclinical cell and animal experiments conducted in multiple CROs in Shanghai and nearby, we could rapidly iterate our artificial intelligence systems and make rapid progress in pipeline research and development," he said.

With an initial investment of $1 million in the Shanghai R&D facility, Insilico had increased the facility's registered capital to $20 million by the end of July.

Insilico is a fine example that China remains one of the preferred destinations of foreign investors despite myriad challenges and uncertainties.

More such examples shone brightly at the 22nd China International Fair for Investment and Trade, which concluded on Sept 11 in Xiamen, Fujian province.

More than 480 project deals with a combined investment value of 342 billion yuan ($49.11 billion) were signed at the fair.

The four-day event attracted more than 800 industrial and trade groups, more than 4,000 enterprises and about 60,000 business people from over 90 countries and regions online and offline, a record in terms of the combined number of participants and visitors.

The latest data from the Ministry of Commerce showed foreign direct investment in China was worth 798.33 billion yuan in the first seven months of the year, up 17 percent year-on-year.