(Yicai Global) July 12 -- AstraZeneca’s first healthcare sector-focused investment fund aims to invest in 100 innovative companies within five years, according to Wang Lei, global executive vice president at the British-Swedish pharmaceutical giant.

AstraZeneca and China International Capital Corporation set up a CNY2.2 billion (USD339.7 million) fund earlier this year to help innovative companies succeed inside and outside of the country, Wang, who is also president of AstraZeneca China, said in the interview with Yicai Global at the 2021 World Artificial Intelligence Conference last week.

The fund, which has already invested in three businesses in the smart healthcare, artificial intelligence and innovative drugs sectors, is expected to reach a value of USD1 billion, he said.

“We will prioritize innovative drugmakers, the companies specialized in AI medicines’ development and AI applications in clinical scenarios, and smart healthcare firms,” Wang said. “We can actively cooperate with them, as we are not just simple financial investors.”

AstraZeneca believes that AI have a huge potential in the sector, Wang said, adding that it has already applied the technology to the research and development of new drugs, production and operations, as well as patient disease management.

The Cambridge, UK-based firm has also begun to use AI to categorize and recruit patients for clinical trials in a more intelligent way. Furthermore, it is exploring the possibility of a real-world data scheme with leading Chinese scientific research institutes and universities to achieve more real-world evidence through the collection of information based on Big Data and AI.

The drug developer also pays great attention to data security. “Any data-related collaboration in China should comply with the country’s laws,” Wang said. “To comprehensively separate Chinese data from the overseas ones we only cooperate with firms registered in China, and then build a firewall to safely store the data according to the law.”

Editors: Xu Wei, Futura Costaglione