Viva Biotech (01873.HK) saw its stock price soar by 5.15% in Friday's trading session, as investors react positively to the accelerating commercialization of AI-driven drug development in the pharmaceutical industry. The company, which began deploying AI pharmaceuticals five years ago, is well-positioned to benefit from the growing trend of artificial intelligence in drug discovery and development.

Recent industry developments have highlighted the increasing importance of AI in pharmaceuticals. Tech giants like Alphabet's SandboxAQ and NVIDIA are making significant strides in the field, with SandboxAQ recently releasing a large-scale synthetic dataset aimed at accelerating new drug development processes. This comes as major pharmaceutical companies are pouring billions into AI-related collaborations, validating the potential of AI-assisted drug development.

Viva Biotech's strategic positioning in this rapidly evolving landscape appears to be driving investor enthusiasm. The company reported that AI-related orders now account for 12% of its newly signed orders, with this proportion showing an upward trend. Viva's AIDD and CADD platforms, coupled with its structure-based drug development advantages, are enabling the company to transition towards AI-driven drug design. As the industry approaches what analysts call an "inflection point," Viva Biotech's early adoption and ongoing development in AI pharmaceuticals may be seen as a significant competitive advantage, potentially explaining the stock's sharp rise.