Hong Kong-listed company says Greater Bay Area integration could help AI-driven drug discovery

Jingtai Holdings, an artificial intelligence (AI) drug discovery company headquartered in the Greater Bay Area, is transforming the biopharmaceutical industry by using artificial intelligence and robotics to transform traditional drug development methods.

Zhang Peiyu, the company's chief scientific officer, said that the company's self-developed large language model (LLM) is the basic technology for generative artificial intelligence services similar to ChatGPT, helping to increase the success rate of chemical experiments from 20% to 30% to 90%. Senior official of Shenzhen Jingtai Technology.

“There are a lot of good opportunities in vertical areas (general artificial intelligence),” Zhang told the Washington Post at the China Conference: Greater Bay Area 2025 in Guangzhou. “For the pharmaceutical industry, we see huge potential for using the LL.M. in professional areas.”

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Zhang predicts that the integration of robotics and artificial intelligence will shorten drug discovery time from four years to one or two years.

Peggy Sito (left), business editor of the South China Morning Post, moderated a roundtable discussion with Hu Hang, CEO of Fosun Health, Professor Li Hongsheng, chief scientist of SenseTime's basic medical model, Tu Fuquan, vice president of Mingmai, and chief scientific officer of Jingtai Technology. Peiyu was in Guangzhou on January 15th. Photo: Nora Tam alt=Peggy Sito (left), business editor of the South China Morning Post, moderates a roundtable discussion with Hu Hang, CEO of Fosun Health, Professor Li Hongsheng, chief scientist of SenseTime Medical Basic Model, and Tu Fuquan, vice president of Mingmai On January 15, Zhang Peiyu, chief scientific officer of Jingtai Technology, was in Guangzhou. Photo: Nora Tam>

Jingtai Technology was founded in 2014 by three quantum physicists from MIT and established a research and development base in Shenzhen a year later. The company is located in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Cooperation Zone at the junction of the two cities. It has taken advantage of local industrial policies to become a major player in artificial intelligence in drug development, providing services to nearly four-fifths of the world's large pharmaceutical companies.

Zhang said the regional synergies of the Bay Area plan have driven the company's development, especially in terms of talent introduction, supply chain cooperation and cross-city financing.

Zhang said the cooperation zone attracts different industry players, including biotech and pharmaceutical start-ups, service providers and regulators.

Jingtai Technology's automated chemical laboratory in Shenzhen is known as the world's largest automated chemical laboratory. It uses about 200 robots to conduct artificial intelligence-guided experiments, which requires a lot of hardware support. The large number of robotics and home appliance companies in the Greater Bay Area makes things easier, Zhang said.

The company also benefits from Hong Kong's status as a financial centre. It listed in Hong Kong last year, becoming the first company to do so under new rules aimed at attracting strategic start-ups.

Geographical and technological advantages enable Jingtai Technology to achieve growth in domestic and international markets. Globally, the company's primary focus remains on biopharmaceutical innovation, particularly in the United States, Europe, and East and Southeast Asia. It also extends to materials science and renewable energy.

Zhang said the company's revenue is currently divided into two markets: domestic and overseas.

Jingtai Technology is increasingly looking beyond China. In November, it partnered with Sinar Mas Multiartha, Indonesia's leading financial services provider, to use quantum physics, artificial intelligence and robotics to drive the development of innovative products in the country, including medicines and new materials.

In the past two years, China has rapidly integrated generative artificial intelligence into the biomedical industry, with major pharmaceutical companies investing heavily in improving research and development efficiency. The chronic and autoimmune drug market is expected to be a key growth area in the country, with the market expected to reach $20 billion by 2030, according to a May report from JP Morgan.

Despite these advances, Zhang noted that China still lags behind the United States in top-notch innovation and basic research in biomedicine.

“In the future, we need to develop drugs with new targets and new mechanisms,” Zhang said, adding that both Shenzhen and Hong Kong have many good basic research results that have yet to be commercialized.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, explore the SCMP app or visit SCMP on Facebook and twitter Page. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.