On 30 July, the biopharmaceutical final of the 14th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition (Zhejiang region) and the 12th Zhejiang “Torch Cup” was held in Hangzhou. Westlake Pharmaceuticals took the highest score of the day, won the growth category and advanced to the provincial final.
The competition is one of China’s largest and most influential, guided by the Torch High Technology Industry Development Centre of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, hosted by the Zhejiang Department of Economy and Information Technology and organised by the Zhejiang Torch Productivity Promotion Centre. It covers five industry tracks, including biopharmaceuticals.
Since June, 884 projects entered the Zhejiang region. A jury of investors and technical experts scored projects on technology and product, business model, market, team and financials, and 30 projects per track advanced to the industry finals.
Nine start-up and 20 growth-stage companies competed, each with eight minutes to present and seven to answer questions, covering technical barriers, market prospects and plans.
Westlake Pharmaceuticals presented “Westlake AI drug discovery platform: intelligent computing for precise drug design”, explaining WAND (Westlake AI for Novel Drug) and its advantages across models, data and compute, and how it is now applied in the company’s own pipeline with higher efficiency than conventional routes and important progress in core programmes.
A composed, professional presentation demonstrated strong technology and a clear path forward, earning the highest score from the jury. Westlake Pharmaceuticals now advances to the provincial final, whose winners are recommended for the national round.
The award recognises the company’s sustained work in AI drug discovery and marks a new starting point. Westlake Pharmaceuticals will keep focusing on the intersection of AI and the life sciences, guided by clinical need, and accelerate the translation of core technology into clinical use.