Seizing the Moment: AWS Empowers Chinese Biopharma Companies in Global Expansion
Currently, the wave of Chinese innovative drugs going global is surging with unstoppable momentum. From license-out deals and mergers and acquisitions to the NewCo model, Chinese biopharmaceutical companies are exploring international markets through diversified strategies, seeking global collaboration and development.
However, the internationalization journey of pharmaceutical companies is fraught with challenges. From drug R&D, regulatory approval, commercial promotion to manufacturing, Chinese innovative pharmaceutical enterprises must navigate diverse regulatory barriers and varied cultural environments across different countries. It is not only about successfully going global but also about deepening their international footprint to win broad recognition and trust in overseas markets.
To better support Chinese biopharmaceutical companies in launching their global expansion, Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently held the “Pharma Global Expansion Executive Salon” as part of its “Setting Sail with Cloud” series in Shanghai. In collaboration with leading enterprises across upstream and downstream segments of China’s biopharmaceutical industry, the event facilitated in-depth discussions on strategies for international market entry.
“Hoisting the Cloud Sail” Series: Executive Salon on Global Expansion for Pharmaceutical Companies
In the opening introduction,Chen Yue, Director of Healthcare and Life Sciences at Amazon Web ServicesIt is pointed out that the current overseas expansion paths of China’s pharmaceutical industry exhibit diverse characteristics, encompassing various asset-light and asset-heavy approaches ranging from mergers and acquisitions to pipeline licensing deals. In the face of intense international competition, Chinese biopharmaceutical companies should select their overseas entry strategies based on their own capabilities and strategic objectives. Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud solutions will serve as an “expansion toolkit” for Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, providing them with one-stop, end-to-end services for global market entry.
At the conference, Wei Yibo, Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), addressed the pain points and challenges in the global commercialization of pharmaceutical products, introducingAmazon Web Services Generative AI Capabilities and Application Scenarios, providing support for the commercialization and market entry of biopharmaceutical companies. Han Bing, Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare Industry Solutions at Amazon Web Services, addressed the pain points and challenges faced by pharmaceutical companies expanding overseas, introducingLife Sciences Enterprise Global Expansion Toolkit, providing pharmaceutical companies with a new engine for global strategy.
The event also invited experts, scholars, and industry executives from leading organizations and innovative pharmaceutical companies, including Deloitte China, Insilico Medicine, Taimei Medical Technology, and Yuanzi Technology. They shared practical corporate experiences in expanding Chinese pharmaceutical products to overseas markets, as well as strategies for leveraging Amazon Web Services’ technical solutions to access global markets.
The rapid development of cloud computing technology is profoundly transforming the landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry.
From the processing and analysis of large-scale data such as gene sequences, protein structures, and drug compounds, to driving innovation in critical areas including drug development, disease diagnosis, and treatment, cloud computing technology has evolved beyond merely providing a robust data processing and storage platform for the biopharmaceutical industry. It now permeates the entire workflow, from clinical development to commercial implementation.
From the perspective of R&D innovation, cloud computing technology leverages robust computational and data analytics capabilities to support high-throughput virtual screening of large-scale compound libraries, as well as molecular dynamics simulations and quantum chemistry calculations. This facilitates drug design and optimization, thereby enhancing the efficiency of drug discovery and reducing R&D costs.
In the realm of clinical trials, cloud computing technology can drive novel solutions for data management, remote monitoring, and subject recruitment, thereby enhancing trial efficiency and reducing R&D costs. For instance, in subject recruitment, AI-assisted screening can identify patients who meet inclusion criteria, improving recruitment efficiency while minimizing the time and costs associated with manual screening.
In terms of commercialization and manufacturing, cloud computing has demonstrated unparalleled advantages, bringing profound transformations to the pharmaceutical industry. Specifically, at the commercial level, cloud computing empowers pharmaceutical companies to accurately predict market trends by providing robust data processing and analytical capabilities. Big data analytics platforms based on cloud computing can collect and analyze multi-dimensional data in real time, including market dynamics, competitor activities, and consumer behavior, thereby providing data-driven support for pharmaceutical companies to formulate scientific business strategies. Meanwhile, cloud computing enables pharmaceutical companies to build intelligent supply chain management systems, achieving transparency, visibility, and intelligence in supply chain operations, optimizing inventory management, reducing operational costs, and enhancing overall operational efficiency.
In manufacturing, the application of cloud computing is equally extensive and profound. First, cloud computing supports pharmaceutical companies in building smart factories, enabling automation, digitalization, and intelligence in production processes. Through cloud platforms, pharmaceutical companies can monitor in real time the operational status of production equipment, production progress, and product quality, promptly identifying and resolving issues during production to ensure efficiency and safety. Second, cloud computing facilitates comprehensive integration and analysis of production data, allowing optimization of manufacturing processes through data analytics, thereby improving production efficiency and reducing costs. Furthermore, cloud computing provides pharmaceutical companies with capabilities for remote collaboration and collaborative manufacturing, supporting cross-regional and cross-organizational team cooperation, accelerating new drug development andOptimizationProduction Process.
Dr. Shan Chen, Head of Bioinformatics at Insilico Medicine, a Leading AI Drug Discovery Company
AI-Driven Drug Discovery LeaderDr. Shan Chen, Head of Bioinformatics at Insilico MedicineAt the salon, its three major AI computing platforms were introduced, covering key pathways from drug target discovery and validation to drug molecule design and optimization, as well as high-throughput compound screening. These platforms have injected unprecedented momentum and efficiency into new drug development, accelerating the R&D process while effectively reducing costs. Dr. Chen Shan specifically highlighted that Insilico Medicine’s three computing platforms have already been deployed in more than 20 countries. Through deep collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS), real-time data sharing and collaborative problem-solving have been achieved globally under compliant and secure data conditions, enabling seamless cross-disciplinary and cross-regional cooperation.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has become the partner of choice for most Chinese biopharmaceutical companies expanding into global markets. In 2013, AWS established a dedicated Healthcare and Life Sciences team worldwide. It now serves thousands of healthcare and life sciences customers globally, including more than 400 Chinese enterprises, accumulating extensive best practices and experience. As a cloud computing leader, AWS is deeply empowering the global expansion strategies of Chinese biopharmaceutical companies, leveraging its worldwide network of data centers and over 200 fully featured cloud service offerings.
Currently, in addition to its cloud computing services for life sciences, AWS has specifically developed high-performance computing solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry.
Firstly,Amazon Web Services High-Performance Computing Solution for New Drug Discovery and Development, it enables the rapid development of user-friendly applications via cloud-based toolchains. Through these applications, users can easily create, update, and delete clusters on a web interface, as well as perform operational tasks such as log viewing. This addresses the challenge posed by traditional command-line interfaces, which demand extensive IT expertise. Specifically designed for pharmaceutical R&D professionals, it provides a web-based High-Performance Computing (HPC) cluster console that allows users to effortlessly create, monitor, manage, and maintain multi-cluster environments, thereby lowering the barrier to entry and significantly improving operational and usage efficiency.
Second,Protein Structure Prediction WorkbenchThis year, the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was awarded to three scientists for their rapid and accurate prediction of protein structures using AI models. Protein structure prediction plays a crucial role in uncovering the fundamental mechanisms of life and developing new therapeutic approaches. However, traditional experimental methods such as cryo-electron microscopy are often costly, while the AlphaFold software involves complex workflows that require substantial GPU and CPU computational resources and access to terabytes of data. Building a large-scale, scalable parallel computing system for AlphaFold presents significant challenges, and it is difficult to meet common enterprise-level requirements, such as fine-grained security access control. The Amazon Web Services (AWS) Protein Structure Prediction Workbench provides an enterprise-grade, end-to-end solution for protein structure prediction, enabling businesses to easily leverage large-scale cloud computing resources to perform protein structure predictions using software such as AlphaFold.
Yibo Wei, Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services
Pharmaceutical companies face severe commercialization challenges in global expansion. Wei Yibo, Solutions Architect at Amazon Web Services (AWS), pointed out that current pharmaceutical commercialization encounters numerous difficulties, such as increasingly stringent regulatory approval requirements, exacerbated data silos and fragmentation, shortages of resources and specialized talent, lack of real-time business intelligence, and insufficient personalization in multilingual content creation, marketing, and customer engagement.
In response to these challenges, Wei Yibo further elaborated on how leveraging Amazon Web Services’ generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) capabilities and corresponding tools can facilitate the global expansion of pharmaceutical products, enabling a more efficient, compliant, and personalized commercialization process. First,Intelligent Medical Data Analysis Assistant, leveraging large language models and cloud computing technologies to rapidly extract actionable insights from vast and complex medical datasets, thereby advancing digital marketing.
Second,Medical Insights Hub, hereinafter referred to as MIH）By integrating internal and external data sources and analytical tools, and providing a user-friendly interface, the system offers decision support to departments such as R&D, medical affairs, and marketing. It meets the needs of clinical trials and regulatory compliance while ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of translations. Specifically, the center features three core capabilities: translation and import/export of medical terminology; a writing assistant for generating medical content leveraging internal and external knowledge bases such as PubMed and search engines; and an upcoming Word Add-in. This add-in will enable customers to access MIH functionalities directly within the Microsoft Word environment and allow enterprise clients to distribute the Word Add-in to employees via Office SharePoint.
In summary, Amazon Web Services’ four major work platforms not only deeply empower the entire biopharmaceutical value chain—demonstrating robust technical capabilities and industry insights from new drug development to protein structure prediction—but also pave an efficient, compliant, and highly personalized commercial pathway for biopharmaceutical companies navigating the challenging landscape of global market expansion.
Pharmaceuticals is a key life sciences segment that Amazon Web Services prioritizes. For Chinese pharmaceutical companies expanding overseas,Han Bing, Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare Solutions at Amazon Web ServicesIt points out that Chinese pharmaceutical companies expanding overseas also face significant challenges in market access, international compliance, localized marketing, global management, and customer management. In response, Amazon Web Services (AWS) has launched the Life Sciences Enterprise Global Expansion Toolkit, aiming to serve as a new engine for enterprises’ global strategies.
Han Bing, Director of Life Sciences and Healthcare Solutions at Amazon Web Services
InMarket AccessIn terms of market entry, partners within the AWS Life Sciences Go-Global Toolkit can conduct target market research and analysis based on data collection and intelligent analytics. By studying policies in exporting and importing countries and managing supply chains, these partners can formulate and execute product localization strategies, effectively shortening the overseas launch cycle for pharmaceutical products. Regarding international compliance, partners can also leverage AWS’s global infrastructure and resources, utilizing generative AI technologies and industry expertise to identify compliance risks and provide recommendations.
InLocalized MarketingIn terms of market reach, AWS Marketplace for global and China-based third-party commercial solutions now covers more than 29 countries and regions worldwide, with over 2 million active subscribers. Listed vendors have achieved a return on investment (ROI) of 234%, accelerated sales cycles by 50%, and scaled their business by 4–5 times.
Currently, more than 5,000 multinational enterprise customers worldwide have deployed core systems such as ERP and CRM on Amazon Web Services (AWS), spanning multiple key industries including manufacturing, retail, financial services, healthcare, and information technology. By leveraging AWS’s powerful computing capabilities, highly scalable infrastructure, and comprehensive data analytics tools, these organizations have achieved optimized business processes, reduced operational costs, and accelerated market response times.
Lu Yiming, CTO of Taimei Medical Technology
From Digitalization to Intelligence: The Pharmaceutical Industry Is Undergoing an Unprecedented Profound Transformation.Lu Yiming, CTO of Taimei Medical TechnologyIt is noted that Chinese pharmaceutical companies are facing the challenges of global digital transformation. In this process, they need a clear long-term strategy and effective implementation, as well as suitable digital partners, and must be prepared for long-term digital investments. This will help pharmaceutical companies further align with international standards. Furthermore, a company’s internationalization strategy cannot be separated from the integration of digital technologies, and a trend from process digitization to AI-enhanced automation has already emerged. In this context, identifying application scenarios, supported by human decision-making and reinforced by business standards, has become critical.
Cao Yingjie, Partner, Deloitte China Consulting
Xin Genping, Senior Solutions Consultant at Yuanzi Technology
Furthermore,Cao Yingjie, Partner, Deloitte China Consulting、Xin Genping, Senior Solutions Consultant at Yuanzi TechnologyThe session also featured insights into the digital challenges and key issues of international digital compliance associated with different global expansion models, focusing on aspects such as overseas expansion strategies and the quality of pharmaceutical companies’ global outreach.
Judging from the current trends in biopharmaceutical development, digitalization and cloud computing have become key drivers propelling industry innovation, accelerating drug R&D, optimizing production processes, enhancing patient experience, and enabling precision medicine. As Wei Yibo concluded, we are at a critical juncture of industry transformation. While AI applications may seem distant, they represent the future trajectory of industrial development. Therefore, rather than pursuing perfection from the outset, it is more important to actively experiment with and iteratively refine models, gradually addressing challenges in daily production and operations, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. Currently, leveraging digitalization and cloud computing, AWS is actively expanding multi-scenario applications and solutions for generative AI, becoming an increasingly preferred strategic partner for digitalization and internationalization among healthcare and life sciences enterprises.
Note: The aforementioned Amazon Web Services (AWS) generative AI-related services are available only in AWS regions outside of China. AWS China recommends these services solely to help you understand cutting-edge industry technologies and explore options for expanding your business overseas.