August 27, 2025
SINGAPORE – Singapore biotech firm Nanyang Biologics is expanding and diversifying its revenue stream beyond discovering cancer and neurodegenerative disorder drugs by supercharging its proprietary artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled drug discovery platform.
When development of the platform, Vecura, is completed in 2026, it will be able to help pharmaceutical companies identify potential drug candidates as quickly as in six minutes.
In traditional drug discovery, this process takes a long time because researchers must screen millions of molecules to find those that act on the right biological target, and rule out the many that are unsafe, unstable, or ineffective.
But AI can help drug discovery because it can quickly analyze huge amounts of biological and chemical data, and predict which molecules are most likely to work as safe and effective drugs.
According to research studies, the global market size for drug discovery platforms was valued at around US$186 million (S$239 million) in 2024 and is predicted to grow at a compound annual rate of more than 13 per cent to reach some US$635 million by 2034.
To develop Vecura, Nanyang Biologics is joining forces with tech firms, signing a memorandum of agreement with data centre Equinix, tech hardware firm Hewlett Packard Enterprise and chipmaker Nvidia on Aug 26 at an AI summit organised by the company at Fullerton Hotel.
Nanyang Biologics was spun off from Nanyang Technological University at end-2024, and focused on developing treatments for cancer, metabolic disorders and neurodegenerative diseases from natural drug compounds.
An earlier version of Vecura, called Drug-Target Interaction Graph Neural Network or DTIGN, was rolled out at about the same time.
DTIGN used a type of machine learning model called a graph neural network to predict how well a drug molecule interacted with a specific biological target, like a protein.
The model also drew on a library of compounds identified from more than 50,000 organisms, such as medicinal plants and fungi, and which are an untapped resource for potential drug candidates.
The platform, which ran on a single AI server, was able to pinpoint 15 potential drug candidates within six months for an undisclosed Japanese firm, said chairman of Nanyang Biologics, Dr Roland Ong.
With the collaboration, the tech partners will provide enterprise-grade infrastructure to power Vecura.
This includes infrastructure that supports high-volume molecular screening at speed, secure systems that can safeguard sensitive scientific data, and global connectivity that enables worldwide collaboration with research organisations.
The company hopes to eventually charge other pharmaceutical companies for use of Vecura, said Dr Ong. He added that Nanyang Biologics owns the IP for the platform and will share revenue with the tech collaborators.
Guest of honour at the event, Senior parliamentary secretary for Sustainability and the Environment Goh Hanyan pointed out that this initiative is a significant step in Singapore’s ambition to be a leading healthcare and biomedical hub.
She said: “It’s crucial that we continue to find ways to collaborate and accelerate healthcare innovation at scale.
“By collaborating internationally and across industries, Singapore can bring in valuable expertise and leverage global discoveries, while capturing value with skills development and creation of intellectual property. This will then ensure our long-term competitiveness and position Singapore as a hub for AI enabled drug discovery.”