00:00Talk to us about the biggest opportunities up there. It's not just about biopharma, is it?
00:04No, not at all. I mean, you know, it's actually very exciting. I've been in this field for 20 years.
00:08I mean, in the past, it's really about, you know, let's invest in companies that can help serve the Chinese
00:12community.
00:13But now, all of a sudden, everything you see technology-wise in U.S. and Europe, it's available in China
00:18and beyond.
00:19There's so much innovation, you know, in China and then, of course, U.S. and whatnot.
00:23How can we leverage on the clinical development capability globally, the speed, the cost, so that we can develop, you
00:31know, drug a lot faster and discover drug a lot faster?
00:34Now, I was an early investor in companies like Schrodinger, Recursion, and Silico, and Silico has done really well in
00:39Hong Kong.
00:40And, in fact, you know, I feel that right now there's a great possibility that AI could potentially be reducing
00:47the amount of time that we could discover drugs and then go beyond.
00:50And, of course, patient recruitment, you know, and a whole lot of other processes and whatnot, what we're seeing in
00:56hospitals.
00:56So there's a lot of really great opportunities using leveraging on AI and digital.
01:01And we know that big pharma, the likes of Eli Lilly, are doubling, tripled down in the Chinese market.
01:06What exactly are they looking at?
01:09Well, you know, it's really interesting because last year, $140 billion worth of licensing deals were done in China, 50
01:16% of the global licensing deal.
01:17Ten years ago, it was zero.
01:20So, I mean, the big pharma coming in, doubling down, tripling down, the BD people, they're also, you know, putting
01:25in lots of teams doing co-development, automation, and lots of investment here.
01:29And I think what they're seeing is the speed.
01:32I mean, you know, look at the speed of clinical development.
01:35In the U.S., it takes three years to do the phase one clinical versus one year in China.
01:40And cost-wise, MRI, it costs $3,000 to do one in U.S. versus, like, about $100 in China.
01:46So I think that right now, people are really starting to see maybe, you know, a lot of the best
01:52-in-class drugs are being developed in China.
01:54And in collaboration with a lot of the U.S. scientists or a first-in-class drugs or platform in
02:00U.S., also leveraging on China during clinical trials.
02:03To be sure, though, there's greater innovation still in the U.S. versus China.
02:08I think so right now.
02:10I do think so.
02:11I mean, you know, but China is picking up a lot in re-engineering capabilities and whatnot and really developing
02:17some of the best in class.
02:19And that's what a lot of the M&A and licensing deals are done.
02:22But as time goes on, I think there's going to be more and more, you know, first-in-class potentially
02:27coming out from China as well.
02:28I'm actually super excited with the young engineers and scientists who are developing drugs and saying, they're saying, you know,
02:35I don't really think about, you know, or care about what, you know, some of the limitations are.
02:39Let's think about some of the new modalities.
02:42And let's use AI as a tool.
02:44So there are a lot of possibilities.
02:45And, of course, you know, a company that I recently, I was involved with from day one and recently went
02:51public, you know, Elema, they are a leader in proteomics.
02:55So protein is also the next frontier when it comes to developing drugs for neurosciences.
03:00So I'm actually super excited with areas that we can venture into, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, MS, ALS, and a whole lot
03:07of others leveraging on.
03:08We talk a lot about how AI is driving drug discovery.
03:12Yes.
03:14Which diseases will be, I guess, solved first, do you think?
03:18I mean, you know, you're being exposed to a lot of different companies and their own research.
03:23Where are we with that?
03:24Well, you know, it's actually very interesting because I keep talking to some of our CEOs, including Alex of Ensilico.
03:30I think there are rare diseases.
03:32There are also major diseases and medical need diseases that people are not able to solve.
03:37So people are really trying to, I think, you know, one of the areas that, in fact, Ensilico just announced
03:43the 30th candidate, you know, viewing AI to discover.
03:47And I do believe that there's going to be areas in small molecule, peptide, large molecule, biologics, and so on
03:55and so forth.
03:56So there's actually a lot of potential everywhere.
03:58But at the same time, I do believe that it's important for us to also look into using AI to
04:03develop diagnostic tools in other areas.
04:06Because if we can discover the diseases earlier, we will also have, you know, biomarkers in other areas see how
04:13to develop better drugs.
04:14So all in all, I think that potentially, I feel that we can actually develop some really great breakthrough drugs
04:22in the next 10 years.
04:23How about aging?
04:24Absolutely.
04:25This is definitely one of our focus, longevity, anti-aging.
04:30So it's very exciting.
04:32And look at RevMed, I mean, you know, the phase 3 clinical data coming out from pancreatic cancer patients, it's
04:38phenomenal.
04:39And we recently invested in a pan-EGFR company that is also very exciting that could potentially reduce the resistance
04:46for patients.
04:47So there are a lot of frontier.
04:49And I just hope that in the next 10 years, we're looking at really trying to resolve some of the
04:54unmet medical needs that we talked about.
04:58And then beyond that, you know, how to deal with all the chronic diseases.
05:01Are you seeing regulatory bottlenecks right now?
05:04Because that could impede innovation.
05:06Are you seeing that more in the U.S., more in China?
05:08How is it looking?
05:10Well, I think that the innovation, the regulation is always a question mark, right?
05:15I think the FDA, there's some, you know, changes in the leadership, you know, in other areas.
05:23But at the same time, I think that there's a lot more collaboration between the companies.
05:28A lot of the companies are actually starting to co-locate from day one, based in Europe and China, U
05:36.S. and China, and really trying to do global trials from day one.
05:39And I think that sometimes startups, biotech companies, may not necessarily need to think about how the approval process may
05:48end up because they may get licensed out or, you know, acquired by Big Pharma.
05:52So I think that right now there's also, you know, some talks about more drug regulatory harmonization where countries beyond
06:01U.S. and China and Europe may recognize each other, you know, so that there could be more access and
06:08faster access to drugs to Asian countries, to South America, Middle East and so forth.
06:13So I do think that with the, you know, with AI and then with a lot of new modalities, with
06:20the mindset and then hopefully cheaper development costs, we can get drugs faster and cheaper to everybody.
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