China News Service, October 5 (Reporter Zhao Fangyuan) "The blood circulation system is closely related to the nervous system, immune system, etc., therefore, the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases need to be considered holistically." Recently, at the 2026 Collaborative Innovation Conference on Disease Prevention and Treatment Research and Achievement Transformation, Gu Ning, academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and professor of Nanjing University, pointed out that nanocarrier research is developing rapidly. Nanomedicine relies on nanocarriers to make treatment more accurate, efficient and safe, and will provide technical support for the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases. In the next step, nanomedicine should focus on the clinical pain points of cardiovascular diseases that are difficult to detect at an early stage and continue to tackle key problems.
The 2026 Collaborative Innovation Conference on Disease Prevention and Treatment Research and Achievement Transformation was jointly sponsored by the National Health Commission's Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Research Center, Health Newspaper, and the National Key Laboratory of Neurological and Oncology Drug Research and Development. A number of academicians and experts discussed topics such as open sharing of industry, academia, research, and medicine, and collaboration between AI and multidisciplinary diagnosis and treatment.
Gu Jinhui, Secretary of the Party Committee and Director of the Medical and Health Science and Technology Development Research Center of the National Health Commission, said that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, we should further give full play to the leading role of scientific and technological innovation in the development of new health and health productivity, further understand the scientific and technological elements and their mechanism of action, strengthen the management of scientific and technological elements through multiple measures, strengthen the coordination of scientific and technological research, improve the scientific and technological innovation system, optimize the results transformation ecology, and provide strong support for the high-quality development of the health and health industry with high-level scientific and technological self-reliance.
Tang Renhong, director of the National Key Laboratory of Neurological and Oncology Drug Research and Development, said that the platform’s main goal is to develop original drugs and solve clinical pain points, and is currently building an open innovation ecosystem. In terms of independent research and development, six innovative drug technologies have been brought overseas; in terms of collaborative research and development, more than 500 projects in five major scientific fields have been funded through research plans and open projects, covering 344 institutions. The next step will be to work with all parties to build a collaborative innovation ecosystem between government, industry, research and medicine, and work together to tackle major diseases.
AI became one of the key directions discussed at the conference. Wang Cunyu, dean of the Institute for Advanced Clinical Medicine at Peking University, said that tumors are a highly complex disease. Simply treating them as chronic diseases for long-term management still faces many challenges. However, in recent years, progress in the fields of tumor immunotherapy and other fields has also allowed people to see more possibilities. Faced with many unknowns in tumor treatment, the rapid development of science and technology, especially the application of new technologies such as AI, has provided new possibilities for further understanding of tumors and exploring new treatment strategies. Therefore, promoting the deep integration of basic research and clinical practice and realizing the translation of more research results into clinical practice on the basis of continuously deepening the understanding of the laws of tumor biology are still the directions in which cancer research needs to continue to make breakthroughs.
Wang Guangji, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor of China Pharmaceutical University, said that medical innovation should be based on solving the unmet medical needs of patients, further breaking down the boundaries of disciplines, institutions and industries, and promoting the deep integration of industry, academia, research and medicine; at the same time, it should focus on medical problems such as neurodegenerative diseases and malignant tumors, and strengthen the research and development of original technologies and diagnosis and treatment solutions.
Qi Lianwen, deputy secretary of the Party Committee and president of Shenyang Pharmaceutical University, said that to open up the chain of achievement transformation, we must adhere to being problem-oriented rather than paper-oriented. The problems mainly come from front-line clinical practice and actual needs of the industry. He pointed out that an important blocking point in current university R&D is the pilot phase. It is difficult for many studies to move from drugs to products, and even more difficult to commercial products. The key is that it is difficult to achieve large-scale production from milligram level to kilogram level. Colleges and universities need to promote the construction of pilot testing platforms in an organized manner and promote the implementation of key links such as clinical approval documents. At the same time, multi-party collaboration is needed to encourage hospitals and industries to get involved as early as possible, rather than waiting for the results to be completed before selling them to companies.
He believes that innovative drug research and development is a long process that requires long-term efforts and ten years of success. Trial and error must also be allowed to create an innovation environment that tolerates failure. (over)
