The Zhejiang Department of Economy and Information Technology has recognised the Westlake Pharmaceuticals AI Drug Discovery Enterprise Research Institute, formally approving it as a Zhejiang enterprise research institute. The institute and the company it is built on will work together to accelerate an intelligent drug discovery system.
An enterprise research institute is a relatively independent technology innovation unit inside a company, part of the industrial innovation system and an important support for Zhejiang’s modern industrial system. Provincial institutes are expected to operate at a high level, and recognition sets strict requirements on R&D spending, talent, intellectual property and research infrastructure.
The institute will be built on Westlake Pharmaceuticals with the goal of creating an AI drug discovery platform that closes the loop between computation and experiment and connects clinical and industrial development end to end, translating basic research efficiently and forming a Westlake-typical paradigm for original drug discovery.
Westlake Pharmaceuticals has long worked on integrating artificial intelligence with drug discovery and has reached initial breakthroughs. Building on the company’s core technology platform, the institute will run key technology programmes, exploiting AI’s potential in target identification, molecule discovery and molecule optimisation, to accelerate innovative drugs with high clinical value and international competitiveness.
Establishing enterprise research institutes is part of building an innovative Zhejiang and developing new productive forces suited to local conditions. The recognition reflects government recognition of the company’s technical strength in AI drug discovery — an honour and a responsibility. The team will use the institute to help the wider industrial chain develop and to support Zhejiang’s life-science industry cluster.