From Technological Breakthrough to Industrial Innovation: StoneWise's MolVado Small-Molecule Drug Design Platform Debuts at HUAWEI CONNECT 2025, Defining a New Height in AI-Powered Drug Discovery
On September 18, HUAWEI CONNECT 2025, themed "Elevating Industry Intelligence," kicked off grandly in Shanghai. Gathering global industry leaders, technology pioneers, and ecosystem partners from Huawei, the event aimed to explore new paths for intelligent technology to empower industrial upgrading. As a strategic partner of Huawei in the biopharmaceutical sector, Beijing StoneWise Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "StoneWise") was invited to deliver a keynote speech, sharing cutting-edge explorations and practical experiences in AI-driven novel drug research and development (R&D).
Small-molecule drug R&D enterprises are grappling with industry challenges of rising costs and shrinking margins. Under the traditional R&D model, issues such as a glut of Me-too drugs and lengthy development cycles have become key bottlenecks restricting enterprises' innovative development. Addressing these pain points, Zhou Jielong, Founder and CEO of StoneWise, delivered a speech titled "Building a New Paradigm for Small-Molecule Drug R&D with Generative AI Foundation Models." He systematically elaborated on how Artificial Intelligence Drug Discovery (AIDD) can help pharmaceutical R&D enterprises break through development dilemmas and achieve corner overtaking from "following" to "leading." During the speech, Zhou focused on StoneWise's independently developed MolVado multimodal AI 3D molecular generation foundation model and small-molecule drug design platform, demonstrating the practical value of AI technology in drug R&D through real-world cases.
As the core of StoneWise's technology system, MolVado is guided by industrial standards and boasts core advantages of "precise target alignment and full-process verification empowerment." It can intelligently generate molecular structures highly matching the target protein pocket structure and integrate professional computational verification tools required in the molecular design phase. The platform constructs an integrated R&D closed loop of "AI 3D molecular generation supplemented by professional-level CADD verification," comprehensively covering key links in early drug R&D such as molecular design, activity verification, and conformational optimization. Currently, the technical feasibility of the platform has been fully validated through practical applications: In StoneWise's internal R&D pipeline, a potential Best-in-Class oral small-molecule inhibitor targeting HPK1 has successfully obtained clinical trial approvals in both China and the United States, with the first patient dosed in Phase I clinical trial this year—marking the official entry of AI-driven self-developed drugs into the clinical validation stage. In collaborative projects, an innovative pharmaceutical enterprise obtained novel scaffold active molecules in just 3 months using the platform, reducing the development cycle by over 90% compared to the 1-3 years required by traditional models. Meanwhile, it cut early-stage synthesis and experimental verification costs by 80%, significantly improving R&D efficiency and success rate.
Since its establishment in 2018, StoneWise has focused on molecular design—the core link in early drug R&D—and continuously optimized its underlying technology platform. From initial ligand-based 2D molecular generation to today's multimodal data-integrated 3D molecular generation foundation model, and further to the realization of a "algorithm design - experimental verification - data feedback" dry-wet experiment closed loop, StoneWise has repeatedly broken the capability boundaries of small-molecule generation technology. According to Zhou Jielong, the company will further evolve towards the "AI Agent" direction in the future, building next-generation drug R&D intelligent agents with autonomous decision-making capabilities. This technical path not only demonstrates StoneWise's full-stack technical strength from algorithmic innovation to engineering implementation but also marks its growth as a leading enterprise in China's AI-driven early drug R&D field.
Notably, the strategic cooperation between StoneWise and HUAWEI Cloud has entered a deep implementation phase. In April this year, the two parties officially signed a strategic cooperation memorandum, establishing a joint solution through "technological integration" to promote the in-depth integration of AI drug R&D technology and cloud computing capabilities, achieving "technological symbiosis and commercial win-win." The debut at HUAWEI CONNECT 2025 is not only a high recognition of StoneWise's technical strength and industry status by Huawei but also signifies that the new paradigm of small-molecule drug R&D centered on generative AI has fully moved from the technical exploration phase to industrial implementation. It provides a "Chinese solution" for the intelligent transformation of the global biopharmaceutical industry.
About StoneWise
StoneWise, founded in 2018, is a technology company dedicated to AI-driven novel drug discovery.
Leveraging industry expertise, breakthroughs in AI technology, in-depth data governance capabilities, and robust software and hardware capabilities, the company has developed a multimodal AI 3D generation model focused on small molecules. Based on the GPT/Transformer architecture and integrated with geometric deep learning technology, this model can accurately generate molecules that match the targets and extend to multiple modalities. In addition, the company can provide customized solutions for the industry.
Based on this platform, our company have achieved remarkable results in the in-house R&D pipelines, with some having advanced to the clinical trial phase.
Currently, over 100 pharmaceutical enterprises and research institutions worldwide utilize this AI platform for early-stage R&D activities. Meanwhile, the physical library business derived from this foundational model is actively expanding both domestically and internationally.
