Emergence of Chinese Drug Discovery Research

Abstract

The identification of hits and the generation of viable leads is an early and yet crucial step in drug discovery. In the West, the main players of drug discovery are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, while in China, academic institutions remain central in the field of drug discovery. There has been a tremendous amount of investment from the public as well as private sectors to support infrastructure buildup and expertise consolidation relative to drug discovery and development in the past two decades. A large-scale compound library has been established in China, and a series of high-impact discoveries of lead compounds have been made by integrating information obtained from different technology-based strategies. Natural products are a major source in China’s drug discovery efforts. Knowledge has been enhanced via disruptive breakthroughs such as the discovery of Boc5 as a nonpeptidic agonist of glucagon-like peptide 1 receptor (GLP-1R), one of the class B G protein–coupled receptors (GPCRs). Most of the original hit identification and lead generation were carried out by academic institutions, including universities and specialized research institutes. The Chinese pharmaceutical industry is gradually transforming itself from manufacturing low-end generics and active pharmaceutical ingredients to inventing new drugs.