Baidu-backed BioMap claims lead over Google’s AlphaFold in AI drug discovery

BioMap, a biotech startup backed by Chinese tech giant Baidu and the Hong Kong government, has claimed that it’s now ahead of market leader AlphaFold in drugs discovered using its models.

The artificial intelligence (AI) race between the US and China is accelerating, as the latter is rapidly closing the gap in the potentially lucrative field of machine-assisted drug discovery.

BioMap said it had surpassed AlphaFold, a subsidiary of Google parent company Alphabet, in commercializing AI for drug discovery.

“There’s no absolute winner in AI benchmark tests, but in terms of commercialization and projects developed based on our models, I think we are ahead of AlphaFold,” BioMap co-founder Wei Liu said in an interview with the South China Morning Post.

However, AlphaFold still had “greater academic influence,” he said.

Previously, BioMap also reported that its xTrimo models performed better than AlphaFold3 at predicting how some antibodies bind to their targets.

AlphaFold, developed by Google DeepMind, Alphabet’s London-based AI unit, was widely considered the global leader in developing new drugs and treatments using AI foundation models.

Cybernews has contacted Google DeepMind for comment on BioMap’s claims.

BioMap was established in 2020 by Wei Liu, who previously served as chief executive of Baidu Ventures, and Baidu founder Robin Li Yanhong. The Beijing-based startup also secured financial backing from the Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC) last year.

Earlier this week, BioMap announced it was co-founding a new company in Hong Kong that would focus on bringing new drugs to the market and boost its commercialization efforts further.

According to the South China Morning Post, the new venture aimed to have its first drug enter clinical trials in Hong Kong within the next two years.

BioMap is part of a growing number of Chinese technology firms, including major companies like TikTok owner ByteDance, that are challenging AlphaFold’s dominance in the rapidly evolving field.