The 4th National Forum on New Technologies in Drug Discovery and Sino-New Zealand Drug Discovery Forum were held in Shanghai on April 27, 2012. This joint event was organized by Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica (SIMM), Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Center for Drug Screening and the Chinese National  Compound Library (CNCL), which was attended by more than 100 domestic delegates from 11 provinces, major cities and autonomous regions, as well as about 20 guests from New Zealand, Denmark, UK and USA. Following the opening remarks made by Mr. Jianjun Cheng, Deputy Director of SIMM, Professor Raymond Stevens of the Scripps Research Institute (USA) delivered a plenary lecture entitled "Technology for a GPCR structure pipeline in drug discovery". Two parallel sessions were conducted thereafter. In addition to short research seminars given by 22 scientists from well-known academic institutions in China and New Zealand, 11 representatives of some large companies introduced various hot topics in drug discovery, ranging from new trends, new strategies, new technologies, new methods to new tools and new instruments. Sponsorships to this event were provided  by 16 domestic and multinational pharmaceutical, equipment, reagent and consumable research, development manufacturing or distribution companies. The participants feel that these two forums will certainly promote international collaboration and aid in the sustained growth of drug innovation.