• Binance back in business.
• Fiat currency exchanges now possible for US traders.
• International competition for geographic hub status.

US cryptocurrency platform, Binance.US has revealed it is accepting US dollar deposits and withdrawal after restoring USD fiat services. Customers of Binance.US can withdraw and deposit USD via ACH bank transfers with no fees and continue to use the platform’s features, including buying, selling, and converting the platform’s accepted 160 cryptocurrencies.

The re-opening of full trade comes 19 months after Binance.US paused USD transactions, which the company stated was “due to escalating regulatory challenges.” A key motive behind the move to limit its activities was the legal action taken against Binance, its founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, and operator of its US exchange by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

The SEC accused Binance of falsely inflating trading volumes to create a misleading impression of market activity. The company was also alleged to have misused customer funds, allowing US users to access its platform despite ongoing restrictions, and deceiving investors about its ability to monitor and prevent fraudulent trading activities.

At the time, Binance.US cited the SEC’s “extremely aggressive and intimidating tactics” as a primary reason for disruptions to its services.

During the suspension, the company announced that it was functioning as a “crypto-only exchange,” dealing with crypto-denominated deposits, trading, and withdrawals, not fiat currencies.

Binance back in business

The latest round of restoration of services came after a great deal of change in the cryptocurrency landscape, including Zhao stepping down as CEO and Binance reaching a settlement in the case by agreeing to pay US$4 billion to the US government. The US’s new president is highly supportive of cryptocurrency, and several cryptocurrency exchanges that had previously withdrawn from the US, due to strict regulations under the Biden administration, are now returning.

Interim CEO of Binance.US, Norman Reed, commenting on the significance of restoring fiat (USD) transactions, said, “The marks one of the most important chapters for Binance.US since July 2023, when we were forced to begin operating as a crypto-only platform. We have been looking forward to the day that we would be able to offer full USD services again.”

The new lease of life for Binance.US could be an indication of the market shifting toward a more stable and regulated environment, or, depending on your point of view, a less-regulated arena in which exchanges can act with greater degree of impunity.

International jostling for position

The current rise in the value of Bitcoin – due in part to the US administration’s proposals to include cryptocurrency in federal reserves and the incumbent president’s welcoming approach to digital currencies – has given fresh impetus to other geographies to position themselves as cryptocurrency ‘hubs’. Hong Kong and Singapore have taken steps to amend or enact regulatory measures that are accepting of cryptocurrencies, and various other APAC countries are circling the possibilities that digital currencies purport to offer.

Last year, Singapore’s Monetary Authority gave out more than a dozen MPI (major payment institution) licences to cryptocurrency exchanges, including Coinbase and Blockchain.com, up from the four such licences it granted in 2023.

Hong Kong’s licensing regulations are somewhat tighter than Singapore’s, due in part to the territory’s close ties with mainland China. The Chinese administration has a selectively positive and sometimes mercurial attitude to cryptocurrencies. As of the end of 2024, Hong Kong had licensed seven cryptocurrency exchanges, and is increasingly seen as friendly towards cryptocurrency trade.

The return of Binance to its full trading status will help the market’s geographic balance. The SEC’s acceptance of Binance.US back into the fold will bolster the US digital currency economy, if not for the collective good of the US people, then at least as a representation of its ‘America First’ economic policies.

The post Binance.US announces restoration of USD fiat services appeared first on TechWire Asia.

The fintech ecosystem is a greener alternative to traditional banking.

Given the pace of technological development in the banking industry, fintechs cut cost and environmental impact by using the cloud instead of in-house data centres.

Using AWS and Microsoft Azure, the endeavor is already in motion. According to research from October 2019, switching to the AWS Cloud can help businesses cut their IT operations’ carbon footprint by up to 88%. This is crucial for the APAC region in particular.

The five locations—Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China), Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, Singapore, and Thailand—demonstrate the diverse stages of development in Asia. With a forward-looking and collaborative viewpoint, the goal is to learn from one another to understand the best practices in various socioeconomic circumstances.

By 2030, global emissions must be reduced by 25% to keep global warming at 2°C above pre-industrial levels. GoImpact, an ESG and Sustainability education company, and The Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Business School revealed the findings from their paper, Exploring the Green Fintech Ecosystem in Asia: Insights from Five Economies in APEC. The study concluded that government support is crucial to the development of green fintech.

Green fintech describes financial operations that make use of ecologically friendly technology, and is derived from three elements: environment, finance, and technology.

Industry leaders from five APEC nations have urged governments to create an environment that will allow green fintech to thrive. They contend governments can promote change by establishing sustainable regulatory frameworks, requiring disclosures, reporting, and thresholds, and providing incentive programs for growth in the industry.

Key findings from the study showed that Asian green fintech startups have already offered a wide range of services: green variants on digital lending, digital asset solutions, digital asset payment, digital investment solutions, digital analytics, crowdfunding, and regtech.

ESG disclosure regulations are also crucial for developing the green fintech ecosystem. Case studies in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region show that green reporting startups have expanded faster since the mandate for ESG reporting for all listed firms was enacted in 2020. The Green New Deal in the Republic of Korea and the Sustainable Finance Initiatives in Thailand are two examples of initiatives by governments that recognize the value of a green economy.

Prof. Kalok Chan, Wei Lun Professor of Finance at the CUHK Business School, was pleased to partner with GoImpact to investigate the Green Fintech ecosystem in Asia.

“This research paper offers a glimpse of trends and insights for the five Asian economies in terms of Green Fintech Ecosystem health, government initiatives and supporting institutions. As one of the leading business schools in Asia, we will also continue cultivating talents with a socially responsible mindset and equipping them with the skills and knowledge to make a positive impact for the betterment of the Green Fintech industry,” he explained.

The post Government support in Asia is key to fostering a green economy for the fintech ecosystem appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Any effort to implement digital transformation must first consider the network. The network must adapt architecturally and operationally as applications have grown in importance to business outcomes and as cloud and multicloud have altered the application environment – especially given how connected practically everyone in this world is.

According to Insider Intelligence, Southeast Asia alone will have the second-fastest growth in internet users globally in 2022, with an annual increase of 3.1%. The number of internet users will rise by 53.9 million since 2019, when 54.0% of the region’s population went online.

In his keynote address at the annual Aruba Atmosphere Conference – SEATH and India in Bangkok, Thailand, David Hughes, Chief Product and Technology Officer, HPE Aruba, said, “Networking is shifting from thinking about it as managing a whole set of devices, towards delivering a service to your users, and enabling business outcomes. When we consider how we can make your job easier, what do we consider? How can we help you in filling those deficits?”

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The need for network modernization is what these challenges are accelerating. According to Hughes, “you need to modernize your network if you want to be nimble, if you want to be able to cope with the unexpected, and if you want to be able to see around those corners.”

How network modernization accelerates the sense of “connected”

The Aruba Atmosphere Conference this year has brought together business-driven organizations from the region to explore the greatest industry practices, foster insightful technical discussion, and sharpen new skills regarding the most recent updates that will aid in continuously modernizing their networks.

Key executives and industry experts discussed Aruba’s always-on innovations in a presentation centered around three fundamental technological principles: agility, automation, and security.

• Agility: Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) adoption is becoming more and more simple, enabling unified, cloud-native, standards-based architecture while optimizing financial and human resources.
• Automation: By achieving streamlined processes and AI-powered automation, networks that enable distant, branch, campus, and cloud connectivity may be planned, deployed, and managed with less time and effort.
• Security: Importance of enhanced threat detection and protection by applying built-in identity-based access control and dynamic segmentation, leveraging zero trust and SASE frameworks.

Static networks are no longer able to fulfil evolving security standards or keep up with expanding business demands. It is strongly advised that businesses establish a modern network architecture when they begin digital transformation activities and adjust to hybrid work environments. This enables businesses of all sizes to execute their main business processes from anywhere thanks to a smooth and secure connection.

Along with the global growth in as-a-service solutions and the rise of hybrid workplaces, HPE GreenLake for Aruba is revolutionizing how businesses operate. In order to stay up with the speed of business, HPE GreenLake keeps up with essential use cases including hybrid work, connected retail, and hybrid learning as well as enabling businesses to quickly deploy them.

Making connections anywhere, anytime has become more important than ever, and according to Steve Wood, Vice President of APJ at Aruba, “Enterprises that prioritize digital transformation and acceleration will be able to address the tough challenges that come with network orchestration, management, and security to eventually drive business growth.”

Key Announcements on Aruba’s next generation networking devices

The transformation of WAN and security architectures with a unified Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) fabric, one that enables organizations to architect a Secure Access Service Edge (SASE), is also essential to delivering the highest quality of experience for customers, employees, and IT teams.

The Aruba EdgeConnect Enterprise SD-WAN platform most recently received the ICSA Labs Secure SD-WAN Certification, making it the first SD-WAN platform to do so. The accreditation highlights Aruba’s industry-leading SD-WAN and security capabilities, giving customers flexibility and assurance in implementing important network and security transformations.

Aruba expanded it further by launching the first self-locating wireless infrastructure and the Open Locate project to standardize methods for exchanging location information.

Mark Verbloot, Senior Director, Product, Solutions and Systems Engineering, APJ, HPE Aruba, claims that high precision GPS receivers have been incorporated inside all of Aruba’s new 600 series access points. Aruba’s announcement of this is not brand-new. They did, however, announced to enable the software to make use of these GPS receivers now.

“There’s two parts to this, the GPS receiver is used to automatically determine its absolute reference both in height as well as position and use that to automatically be positioned on a floor plan. In addition, we’ve got something called fine time measurement (FTM), or also known as IEEE 802.11mc. This is a standard where devices or clients can accurately measure their position from a fixed point, using time-of-flight measurement – basically measuring how long it takes to receive a signal or a ping from a known reference point,” explained Verbloot.

Together, these two components made up what Aruba referred to as “Open Locate.” Verbloot declared that Aruba will provide these to the entire industry. It is intended to allow them to advertise the exact location of the access point from the access point beacon. Therefore, any client can obtain that information and determine precise location, regardless of whether it supports FTM or not.

The post The need to modernize network is now, with everyone connected worldwide appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Cybercriminals are drastically broadening their attack surface and introducing malware that targets Linux operating systems in order to have the greatest impact with the least amount of effort.

While Windows systems are the target of 85% of ransomware attacks, Linux is gaining popularity as a target due to the high value of the devices it powers, specifically servers that manage government and enterprise networks, web services, and sizable databases owned by companies that can afford to pay to have operations and crucial data restored after an attack.

However, given how widely used Linux systems are becoming, that figure might rise. In the upcoming years, ransomware gangs will progressively target Linux servers and embedded systems, according to Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in cybersecurity. In the first half of 2022, it observed a double-digit YoY increase in attacks on these systems.

According to Trend Micro’s Tony Lee, Head of Consulting, Hong Kong & Macau, new and emerging threat organizations continue to develop their business models and target their attacks with ever more accuracy.

“That’s why it’s essential that organizations get better at mapping, understanding, and protecting their expanding digital attack surface. A single, unified cybersecurity platform is the best place to start,” he added.

Ransomware attacks running rampant on Linux systems

Trend Micro found that 63 billion threats were stopped by the company in the first half of 2022 from the data it uncovered. Government, industry, and healthcare are the top three industries attacked by malware, and the first half of this year saw 52% more attacks than the same period in 2021.

In the first half of 2022, attacks using ransomware-as-a-service were increasingly detected. It’s interesting to note that over 1,200 victim companies and 67 active RaaS and extortion groups were recorded in the first half of 2022, according to data acquired by Trend Micro.

Detections of significant players like LockBit and Conti increased by 500% YoY and nearly doubled in just six months, respectively. For ransomware creators and their affiliates, the ransomware-as-a-service business model has brought in considerable revenues.

Every day, new ransomware gangs pop up. Black Basta will be the most notable throughout the first half of 2022. 50 organizations were reached by the group in just two months. Despite the fact that SMBs are becoming a more and more popular target, many people continue with the “big game-hunting” of large corporations.

Vulnerability exploitation is one of the main attack methods for ransomware. 944 vulnerabilities were the subject of warnings from Trend Micro’s Zero Day Initiative during the period, a 23% YoY increase. The number of published critical bug advisories increased by 400% year over year.

APT groups use a large infrastructure and a variety of malware tools to continuously improve their techniques. Another indication that threat actors are increasingly incorporating Emotet into their complex cybercrime operations is the ten-fold increase in detection rates.

Threat actors being able to weaponize these issues faster than vendors can release patch updates or customers can patch them is a source of concern.

As the hybrid workplace grows their IT infrastructure, unpatched vulnerabilities add to a growing digital attack surface that many enterprises are unable to manage safely. 43% of international organizations say it is “spiring out of control” and that this is the case.

Given the ongoing risk of outside parties taking advantage of poorly designed infrastructures and adopting cutting-edge methods like cloud-based crypto mining and cloud tunneling, cloud visibility is especially crucial. Threat actors commonly employ the latter to host phishing websites or redirect malware traffic.

The post As Linux systems are more widely used, ransomware attacks also rise in frequency appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Hong Kong plays an essential role in linking China to the world. In 2020 alone, Hong Kong handled about 10.1% of mainland China’s exports and 14.3% of its imports, valued at US$263 million and US$295 billion, respectively, according to the Hong Kong Trade Development Council Research. 

It also stated that 53% of Hong Kong’s re-exports came from the mainland. The island is also part of the Greater Bay Area, a megalopolis that includes nine Southern China and Macau cities. It is home to around 71.2 million people or 5% of China’s total population.

As e-commerce and digital banking become the norm, exciting fintech solutions are also rising from the island. Wallyt, a leading digital payment solution provider, recently revealed its partnership with All Link Pay, a cross-border payments platform founded this year and backed by a leading MSO (money service operator) group in Hong Kong. 

Wallyt helped launch the first cross-border payment wallet with the Bank of China (Hong Kong) in 2018 and a cross-border e-commerce payment collection and disbursement solution for banks and financial institutions in 2020. 

The one-stop mobile payment service provider now serves more than 150 banks and financial institutions in over 60 countries and areas, with clients including Uniqlo, Rolex, Lego, Prada, Disney, CIMB Niaga, Bank Muamalat, Marks & Spencer, and more. 

Meanwhile, All Link Pay (ALP) is part of the group with 20 years of foreign exchange service experience in Hong Kong with a large cluster of cooperation networks around the world and tens of thousands of clients in import and export. 

It established All Link Pay to broaden its range of cross-border payment collect and disburse services to serve better its existing clients moving online and attract the increasing numbers of new cross-border merchants. It supports popular platforms such as Amazon, eBay, Wish and more. 

Wallyt and All Link Pay collaboration will allow cross-border e-commerce merchants 

The Wallyt and All Link Pay collaboration will allow cross-border e-commerce merchants in Hong Kong and Mainland China to open one or multiple local currency accounts. 

The collaboration will allow the collection of international payments from online marketplaces, make foreign exchange transactions, withdraw money, and payout funds to suppliers, sellers, and any service providers worldwide. 

“Beside the cross-border payment, All Link Pay and Wallyt also established a deeper collaboration in risk management and financial inclusion. Based on the group’s comprehensive financial service capabilities, All Link Pay will further provide cross-border merchants with extensive overseas channel resources and a diverse set of financing options to grow their business,” Wallyt said in a statement announcing their alliance.

Teaming up with All Link Pay is part of the many partnerships that Wallyt has formed. This year also saw the Hong Kong-based fintech company working with Findora, Nepal’s NIC ASIA Bank, and Indonesia’s Arash Digital and Bank Neo Commerce. It is also listed in IDC China FinTech 50, based on financial industry research on technology, innovation, and financial services trends in China.

The post Wallyt and All Link Pay partner up for payments appeared first on TechWire Asia.

US chipmaker Intel told AFP that after consulting with health officials, it “will move to a digital-first, live experience, with minimal on-site staff” to reduce risk.

Omicron is now the dominant variant of Covid-19 cases in the US, making up 73% of all cases in the US, a 479% increase (12.6%) from the previous week, reported NPR.

As of yesterday, it accounts for 90% of cases in certain states in the US, reported CNBC.

———-

As the world prepared to return to normal, so did major in-person tech conferences — until the new Covid-19 Omicron variant started upending plans.

As nations increasingly report higher numbers of Omicron-infected persons daily, some governments are starting to suspend quarantine-free travel and push for higher vaccination rates.

In the US, Omicron cases have been rapidly rising, prompting several major tech companies to cancel or limit their attendance at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) — the tech industry’s annual mass-gathering in Las Vegas. 

The popular four-day conference, which had planned for a grand return next month, is still scheduled to start January 5, with the press getting an early peek two days before.

But on Tuesday, a number of major tech firms such as Facebook parent company Meta, Amazon, T-Mobile, and Twitter canceled their appearances. Google told AFP that it is  “closely monitoring the situation” and would announce any update regarding its CES plans.

Electric vehicle automaker General Motors, however, has opted to remain at the tech conference, with plans to reveal its new EV model, the Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck.

The company had, in January, pledged to exclusively offer electric vehicles by 2035 and end production of combustion-engine ones. 

Tech publications including CNET, The Verge, and TechCrunch also confirmed that reporters would not be sent to cover the event, adding to suspicions that CES might have to be delayed or canceled.

Asian tech conferences disrupted too

Over in Asia, the annual RISE Conference scheduled to take place in Hong Kong in March 2022 has been canceled, with organizers planning for a 2023 return. 

In a fresh blow to an international business hub that has embraced China’s “zero-Covid” strategy, organizers of the tech conference chose to postpone because “uncertainties brought about by the pandemic have continued”.

According to AFP, the move came after organizers flip-flopped on their choice of venue, announcing last December that it would ditch Hong Kong for Malaysia before reversing that decision nine months later.

RISE initially said moving to Kuala Lumpur would expand the organizer’s presence into Southeast Asia.

But as Malaysia faced a fresh surge of Covid-19 cases in the middle of this year, the company behind the event said it was “no longer feasible” to run it in the country.

RISE’s evolving relationship with Hong Kong has drawn attention at a time when major tech firms fret over Beijing’s crackdown on dissent in the financial hub.

Hong Kong has long enjoyed greater online freedoms than mainland China, which deploys the world’s most sophisticated internet censorship network. 

But a national security law imposed on Hong Kong by Beijing last year has given authorities new controls including internet takedown powers.

RISE has previously stated that its choice of venues had nothing to do with Hong Kong politics.

With additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the world’s third-largest financial bourse, has always positioned itself as the prime listing hub for Chinese companies that aim to raise capital abroad. The country has specifically gained from the lingering US-China geopolitical tension, recording its best nine months on record since 1980 as a flurry of Chinese companies redirected their IPOs to the city.

To make matters worse, Chinese companies that have plans to raise capital on Wall Street will now be entitled to greater scrutiny as the US regulators have even imposed a law that allows authorities to delist stocks whose auditors refuse to comply with US oversight. So the only respite for those Chinese companies is in Hong Kong but that might not be the case in the near future,

But now, IPOs in Hong Kong will not be that simple

Beijing has been intensifying probes into tech companies and their data security practices, especially when it comes to the transfer of data outside mainland China, which the government deems a matter of national security. It started when, in July, Chinese ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing went public in New York — despite being told not to. 

Soon after that, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) launched a cybersecurity review into the company and proposed a mandate for all Chinese firms with more than a million users to get approval before listing in foreign markets.

Here is where it gets trickier — while many had assumed that IPOs in Hong Kong would be exempt from various red tapes, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) last month released the Network Data Security Management Regulation (Exposure Draft), clarifying that listings in the special administrative region would also need to go through a cybersecurity review if they “affect or may affect national security.”

The sprawling draft Regulation, consisting of 75 articles, unifies data security rules introduced by the Cybersecurity Law (CSL), Data Security Law (DSL), and Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). The CAC is seeking public opinions on it until December 13, 2021

A partner at international law firm Pinsent Masons in Hong Kong Paul Haswell told South China Morning Post, “The mood at the moment, given how new the laws are and the fact that we are still waiting for an explanation on the ambit and meaning of some of their provisions, is one of concerned uncertainty.”

In short, the listing review would cause anxiety to Chinese tech firms which were counting on pivoting toward going public in Hong Kong without needing approval. As Bloomberg puts it, “there may not be a wave of Hong Kong share sales by Chinese tech companies as some predicted months ago.”

So far, there are three Chinese tech firms including Microblogging platform Weibo, NetEase’s music streaming service Cloud Village and artificial intelligence company SenseTime, that have upcoming Hong Kong listings. Those IPOs can be taken as test cases for the new regulations once enacted

The post How will China’s new data security law affect Hong Kong IPOs? appeared first on TechWire Asia.

And this is where it gets tricky. Most of the big tech players want to have a strong presence in the region. Yet, as data privacy laws get stricter, most of them would move to another country with laxer laws.

Hong Kong, which is a hub in APAC for most of these companies, is about to experience a huge shift in the technological landscape as China plans to make changes to its privacy laws. As reported by Reuters, Facebook, Google, and Twitter are some of the companies that could potentially cease operations in the territory should officials implement the amended data protection laws that could hold these tech giants liable for doxxing campaigns.

According to reports, the Asia Internet Coalition, which includes the three tech companies above, asserted that the changes to the law may affect freedom of speech. The coalition urged Hong Kong to narrow down the scope of violations.

While data privacy laws are generally meant to protect the privacy of consumers, there have been concerns about freedom of speech and access to unregulated internet. For example, both Google and Facebook can’t be accessed in China.

Moving away from Hong Kong

Interestingly, if Facebook, Google, and Twitter do move their operations out of Hong Kong, Southeast Asia (SEA) would likely be the most suitable region for a relocation. Singapore, which already has stringent data privacy laws in place, is already an established technological hub in the region. The island nation is also home to the regional offices of these companies as well.

Data centers are a crucial infrastructure to enable tech providers to serve their customers. As it stands, SEA also happens to already be home to several data centers by large tech organizations. Local data privacy laws have seen to it that these companies that set their infrastructure up locally meet all compliance and regulations set.

Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing economies and is also home to the highest number of tech users in the region. However, in Indonesia, data regulations are unclear, although data is not allowed to leave the country — it has to be analyzed and stored locally. To meet these requirements, companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Alibaba, Google, and several others have invested in data centers in the region. These players cater to growing tech demands, but at the same time also ensure that they meet all compliance and data privacy regulations set by the governments of the countries they set up in.

Interestingly Alibaba also plans to launch its first data center in the Philippines for its cloud services. The US$1 billion funding is expected to boost tech and start-up talent across APAC. In Malaysia, Alibaba is also planning to build an international innovation center as a one-stop innovation enablement platform for Malaysian small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Going back to data privacy, countries like the Philippines and Malaysia still do not have strong data privacy laws. While there exist some regulations of sorts to protect user data, there are still loopholes that need to be addressed. Southeast Asia still has some work to be done when it comes to implementing adequate privacy and security laws, but they are headed in the right direction.

Whilst proper regulations and laws ensure that data is well protected, they also need to be sensible and not impose restrictions that are too harsh. While international businesses can choose to pick another place to operate should privacy laws not favor them, local enterprises, especially SMEs, may not be able to do so.

The post Will China-like data privacy laws force big tech out of HK and into Southeast Asia? appeared first on TechWire Asia.

The use of emerging technologies in the biotech market is growing, with a market valuation of US$752 billion in 2020 alone. This is especially true in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region, whose biotech market is expected to expand even faster, with a CAGR of 16.8% up to 2028. 

This speed can be attributed to improvements in healthcare infrastructure, supportive government policies, clinical trial services, and epidemiological factors. 

In the US, over 78% of the healthcare sector intend to or are already implementing digitalization efforts using cloud and other emerging technologies.

There is also growing interest by foreign companies to work or collaborate closely with regional APAC biotechnology players, making the region’s biotech market ripe for investment.

Insilico and its value proposition

Yesterday, Hong Kong-based AI-powered biotech startup Insilico Medicine raised another US$255 million, led by Warburg Pincus and over 25 expert biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and AI investors. These include Sequoia Capital, Lilly Asia Ventures, and Baidu Ventures. Since its inception in 2014, this brings their total investments up to US$310 million.  

Insilico’s innovative and unique services revolve around the heavy use of deep learning to drive their efforts in drug discovery and development. Deep learning (DL) is a subset of machine learning (ML) under the umbrella of artificial intelligence (AI).

Insilico and technological disruption of the pharmaceutical industry

Traditional drug development from discovery to market exists on a continuum, divided amongst three to four stages, depending on the manufacturer. 

It takes approximately 10 to 12 years to achieve that, with most of the time spent on clinical trials. Complicating that, only about 14% of drugs manage to get regulatory approval (such as from the Food & Drugs Administration, or, FDA), with costs averaging US$2.8 billion.

As such, speed is the biggest challenge for pharmaceutical companies, and also why novel drugs cost so much while their patents are active. 

Before drugs can reach the clinical stage, it has to undergo several rigorous steps to demonstrate its strong efficacy and safety for clinical trial organisms, be it animals or humans. 

Typical development processes up to the nomination of a preclinical candidate can take approximately four and a half years or about 53 months. 

With Insilico’s method, it can shorten the process by as much as 66% (which is 18 months, or, one and a half years). Not only that, but it can also drastically reduce associated costs by 90% as compared to similar programs.

Powering drug development with AI

Insilico has built a strong, AI-powered, end-to-end drug discovery platform, which, according to their CEO, Dr. Alex Zhavoronkov, has taken them seven years to develop.

The platform includes PandaOmics, an AI-powered novel target discovery engine; Chemistry42, a deep generative reinforcement learning system (which allows for de-novo design of novel molecules with the desired properties that do not exist in the known chemical space), and InClinico, which predicts clinical trial outcomes.

PandaOmics is a biology-solving engine, whereas Chemistry42 is a compound-generating engine. Both these engines have been built on years of modeling large biological, chemical, and textual datasets using deep learning. 

Insilico is the world’s first company that has managed to use AI to identify a novel target for a major pulmonary disease. How it works is that the algorithm generates novel molecules for that novel target. 

The novel target generated by PandaOmics presents a significant breakthrough and is relevant for a broad range of fibrosis indications. Chemistry42 then uses the newly discovered target as the basis for the structure-based design of a first-in-class novel small molecule inhibitor. This then completes the preclinical experiments required to nominate a preclinical candidate.

Next steps for Insilico

Since the launch of Chemistry42 in September 2020, seven out of the top 30 pharmaceutical companies have deployed its software, including Merck KGaA and UCB. 

Additionally, Insilico has deployed a drug discovery team and platform in China to work on multiple therapeutic programs targeting novel, difficult, and previously undruggable targets.

“Over the last two years, we have built an AI-friendly drug discovery team and a “frictionless drug discovery” ecosystem of about 80 contract research organizations and partners like the cloud robotics provider Arctoris, that specialize in specific assays, to generate disease-relevant machine-learnable proprietary data and to develop our own drug discovery pipeline”,

shared Dr Zhavoronkov in a message spotted by Tech Wire Asia.

He also stated that the company is preparing to innovate clinical development (which takes around seven or more years) using a similar approach. 

Fred Hassan, former Chairman, and CEO of Schering Plough Corporation, commented on behalf of Warburg Pincus,

“Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning is a powerful tool to revolutionize the drug discovery process and bring life-changing therapies to patients faster than ever before.”

In the meantime, Insilico is ready to license its AI platform to pharmaceutical and biotech companies for on-premise deployment or via SaaS to expand their own AI-drug discovery processes.

The post Asian biotech startup Insilico is disrupting the pharmaceutical industry using Artificial Intelligence appeared first on TechWire Asia.

Although more details of the plan will be shared by the HKMA at a later time, five focus areas were highlighted. These include: 

1. Pushing banks to digitalize and adopt fintech;
2. Strengthening HK’s readiness for CBDCs through research;
3. Enhancing and adding to the city’s existing data infrastructures;
4. Increasing the fintech-savvy talent pool, and
5. Formulating policies and exploring funding possibilities for fintech projects

CBDC readiness to be ‘future-proofed’

Startup Genome in their Global Fintech Ecosystem Report 2020 ranked Hong Kong’s fintech ecosystem eighth in the world, beating multiple contenders from Asia Pacific, Europe, and North America. 

As decentralized finance such as cryptocurrencies looms threateningly over the heads of financial institutions across the world, central banks are starting to fight back, most notably by developing their own sovereign digital currencies, which would rely on well-developed fintech ecosystems.

Naturally, Hong Kong sought to explore the possibility of its own CBDC, with its eyes set on offering both wholesale and retail options. The HKMA will further research efforts to increase the city’s readiness for CBDCs. It has indicated its intention to work with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) local Innovation Hub to research use cases, benefits, and risks of a retail CBDC. 

Of note, too, is their intention to continue collaborating with China’s Digital Yuan trials, with a view to boost cross-border e-payments between the two entities.

CBDC popularity on the rise

According to a BIS survey, 80% of banks globally are keen on exploring CBDCs. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes CBDCs can lay the groundwork for highly efficient payment systems — ones that promote financial inclusion.

Additionally, it can motivate a shared ecosystem between the general public, corporations, and the financial industry at large, to develop parallel innovations that will also leverage blockchain technology in non-payments-related areas.

China has led the CBDC race with its DCEP, supplementing its efforts with tough crackdowns on cryptocurrency activities. Elsewhere in Asia, Japan and Cambodia are some of the other APAC contenders who are also studying the viability of their own CBDCs.

Hong Kong on the rebound

In the government’s 2018-2019 budget, over HK$100 billion was allocated over three years towards four key development areas, comprising biotechnology, artificial intelligence, smart city, and fintech. Despite multiple economic setbacks, the city seems to be on track in its progress in these areas.

While an emerging digital powerhouse, Hong Kong hadn’t quite caught up to its SEA peers within the e-commerce and e-payments markets, although that is about to change soon. Ironically, while Covid-19 has severely impacted the world’s economies, Hong Kong like others has recognized a lucrative opportunity to stage a comeback through digital economy innovation and growth. 

HK consumers are far more digitally savvy, and demand for digital services is greater than ever in a socially distanced present environment. At first glance, their latest development strategy looks rather promising, albeit still mostly in its early stages. It would be interesting to see its development over the next quarter or two. 

Nevertheless, massive efforts have to be undertaken by multiple players if the city is to return as an Asian economic powerhouse.

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