Against the backdrop of rapid industrial transformation driven by artificial intelligence (AI), the WIM 2025 World Innovators Meetup, hosted by EqualOcean, was held on December 3 in Beijing. Under the theme “New Growth, New Arena,” the conference focused on AI-enabled growth and emerging arenas in future industries, bringing together over a hundred technology leaders and thousands of industry professionals. The event reviewed key innovation milestones from 2025 and explored major trends shaping 2026 and beyond.
As a central highlight of the conference, EqualOcean officially released the “2025 Future Health Innovators TOP10” list. Dr. John Zheng, Founder and CEO of Divamics, was selected in recognition of his original technical framework and international track record in AI-driven drug discovery, standing out among a competitive group of innovators.
An Industry-Recognized Innovation Benchmark
Since 2014, WIM has been one of EqualOcean’s flagship innovation forums, covering six major future-oriented sectors including manufacturing, information technology, advanced materials, energy, space, and healthcare. Its annual innovation rankings are widely regarded as a key reference for identifying emerging technology leaders and transformative approaches within the health and life sciences ecosystem.
The 2025 Future Health Innovators TOP10 list highlights individuals who have demonstrated strong technical leadership, practical impact, and long-term vision in the convergence of AI and pharmaceutical R&D. The recognition reflects a growing industry consensus that AI-driven drug discovery is becoming a foundational capability for next-generation healthcare innovation.
Founded by Dr. Zheng, Divamics is among the early teams to introduce the concept of “Molecular Films” and to systematically develop the Dynamics-based Drug Discovery (DBDD) paradigm. The company has built an early-stage drug discovery platform centered on multi-scale molecular dynamics simulations combined with AI algorithms, with the goal of restructuring drug R&D workflows through interpretable, verifiable, and scalable methodologies.
Over the past several years, Divamics has collaborated with more than 50 global pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, advancing 80+ drug discovery programs. In multiple projects, the company has reduced the timeline from Hit identification to Preclinical Candidate (PCC) to 4–6 months, significantly outperforming typical industry benchmarks. Several partnered programs have progressed into Phase III clinical trials, and more than ten programs have resulted in patent filings. In 2024, over 60% of Divamics’ revenue was generated from international markets, positioning the company as one of the few early drug discovery technology providers with proven global delivery capability.
Dr. John Zheng: AI Will Reshape the Structure and Trajectory of Early Drug Discovery
During the “Future Health” roundtable session at WIM 2025, Dr. Zheng shared his perspective on the evolving relationship between AI and drug discovery. He noted that drug R&D remains a highly uncertain exploratory process, and that humanity’s understanding of biological systems is still incomplete. In this context, AI is not meant to replace scientists, but to provide more precise and structured information to support scientific decision-making:
“In many ways, drug discovery still resembles a ‘blind men and the elephant’ process. AI adds an extra beam of light—helping us better illuminate the critical biological and molecular mechanisms.”
Dr. Zheng further emphasized that drug discovery is called Discovery precisely because key information is still missing. The real value of AI, he explained, lies in transforming a largely stochastic discovery process into one that is increasingly engineerable and verifiable.
This perspective captures a broader paradigm shift underway in the future health sector. AI is evolving from a supporting tool into core infrastructure for next-generation drug discovery, reshaping not only industrial structures but also team organization models and early R&D strategies.
As WIM 2025 underscored “AI-driven new growth and new arenas,” the message extended beyond short-term trends to signal deeper structural changes across the healthcare and life sciences landscape. With AI continuing to penetrate critical stages such as target identification, molecular design, and mechanism understanding, the industry is entering a new development cycle defined by the co-evolution of data, algorithms, and biological insight.
As Dr. Zheng observed, AI is already reshaping the knowledge framework of pharmaceutical science in subtle but profound ways. Once new technologies are systematically mastered and translated into practice, corresponding technical teams and business models will inevitably evolve—unlocking disproportionate impact and long-term industry transformation.
For Divamics, this transformation represents both opportunity and responsibility. The company will continue to deepen the integration of AI algorithms with mechanistic molecular understanding, advancing drug discovery toward greater predictability, shorter development cycles, and more controlled risk profiles. By remaining grounded in fundamental research, accelerating technological iteration, and strengthening global collaboration, Divamics aims to contribute to the emergence of a truly AI-native era of drug discovery.
