CombiMolix Advances AI-Driven Drug Discovery Platform, Files IPO Prospectus

In recent years, the AI pharmaceuticals field has once again sparked a wave of development.

In 2023, the world's top ten MNCs all emphasized the significant role of AI in drug development, manufacturing, and commercialization in their annual reports, competing to invest more in AI-driven pharmaceuticals. According to research data from Huachuang Securities, all of the top 20 global pharmaceutical companies have now invested in AI + new drug research and development. From 2023 to February 2024, the publicly disclosed potential total amount of collaborations between MNCs and AI drug research or IT technology enterprises exceeded 12 billion US dollars, with an average collaboration value reaching 840 million US dollars. The recently held NVIDIA GTC 2024 conference has once again brought "AI + pharmaceuticals" into the spotlight.

Computational Medicine Beijing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "ComMedX") is an innovative company that focuses on the popular AI pharmaceuticals track.。

As a platform company focused on using computational chemistry and AI to drive early-stage R&D of innovative targets,ComMedX has successfully built three major platforms: a drug design platform, a lead compound optimization platform, and a bioactivity validation platform, all based on core technologies such as ultra-large-scale virtual screening and AI-driven drug optimization using protein three-dimensional structures., providing integrated innovative target small molecule development solutions to pharmaceutical companies and research institutions worldwide. Data shows that ComMedX's AI drug discovery platform can shorten the discovery and confirmation time of drug targets from 2-3 years to 1-1.5 years, reducing R&D costs by more than 80%.

To date,ComMedX has served dozens of clients and achieved several milestone advancements in joint development.Currently, the company is advancing its pipeline, which includes the development of small-molecule targets in disease areas such as oncology and immunotherapy, cavernous hemangioma, and renal anemia. The fastest-progressing project is expected to enter the PCC (Preclinical Candidate Compound) stage in 2024.

ComMedX was founded in September 2020, jointly promoted by four doctors—Dr. Xiaobo Wan, Dr. Niu Huang, a senior researcher at the Beijing Life Sciences Institute, Dr. Bei Shan, founder of BioRay Pharma (hereinafter referred to as "BioRay Pharma"), and Dr. Rui Ma, a partner at Frees Fund.

Dr. Xiaobo Wan, Founder and CEO of the CompanyFrom 2008 to 2013, received doctoral training in Dr. Huang Niu's research group at the National Institute of Biological Sciences, Beijing, earning a Ph.D. from Tsinghua University & Peking Union Medical College, followed by postdoctoral research at UCSF under the guidance of Professors Brian Shoichet and Jack Taunton. Published 18 academic papers in total and participated in multiple drug design projects, including the discovery of PIM1 kinase inhibitors, Pfizer-UCSF early covalent compound development, and the NIH-funded GPCR small molecule discovery project.

Against the backdrop of a tremendous development boom in the AI pharmaceuticals field, Dr. Xiaobo WanDr. Niu Huang, Mentor and Chairman of the Company's Scientific CommitteeWith strong support, they decided to establish a company to meet the unmet needs in the market. At this time, this idea received support from Dr. Bei Shan, the founder of VCBeat.Dr. Danbei was the former Executive Director of Eli Lilly in Shanghai and Amgen in the United States, with extensive experience in drug research and development.。And ComMedX has become the first company to入驻百放英库原创新药孵化平台.

In addition,The core team members of ComMedX also include Dr. He Huang, the company's director and chief development officer, and Dr. Yuanxun Wang, the deputy director of drug design.Among them, Dr. He Huang graduated from Purdue University in the United States. She served as an associate researcher at the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, leading multiple high-performance computing construction projects and algorithm software development efforts. She has published numerous academic papers in mainstream international journals, including Nature and Cell, and obtained one Chinese invention patent. Dr. Yuanxun Wang graduated from Tianjin University and worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Beijing Life Science Institute. With a background in medicinal chemistry and computational chemistry, he has applied for four Chinese invention patents and three PCT patents.

Driven by its core members, ComMedX was established at the right time. With the strong support of investors Frees Fund and BAI Capital, Dr. Xiaobo Wan, in collaboration with Dr. Niu Huang, Bai Fang Yingku, and the core team, successfully completed two rounds of financing. They also formed a multidisciplinary cross-functional team to accelerate the process of transforming AI drug design technology into industrial services and project pipelines.

Based on its technical accumulation and team advantages, ComMedX has built an integrated new drug discovery platform driven by computational chemistry and AI, which includes three sub-platforms: hit compound discovery, lead compound optimization, and drug-likeness optimization.

The Hit Compound Discovery Platform is an ultra-large-scale virtual screening platform capable of expanding the explorable chemical space from 10⁶Increase to 10¹⁰, which can be used for the discovery of hit compounds for novel targets, addressing the pain points of drug development from 0 to 1.Notably, the platform is not only deployed on ComMedX's own computing cluster and public cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services, but the company has also collaborated with Professor Weiguo Liu's team from the School of Software at Shandong University, Professor Guangwen Yang's team from the Department of Computer Science and Technology at Tsinghua University in Beijing, and Dr. Niu Huang's laboratory team.Together, they redesigned and optimized it on the domestically produced "Sunway TaihuLight" supercomputer, ultimately achieving a performance improvement of up to 167 times.. While ensuring efficient screening, the platform integrates multiple databases and a wealth of AI tools, supporting research teams in conducting studies such as target pocket evaluation, binding mode prediction, and customized library screening for specific projects. It also provides tailored recommendations of suitable compound libraries based on clients' target requirements.

For the optimization of lead compounds, the company has developed3D Activity Cliff AnalyzerBy combining patent big data with self-developed automated molecular optimization tools, the platform has broken through the traditional two-dimensional spatial thinking of drug compounds. It can quickly identify key target regions that play a crucial role in activity, ultimately enhancing the activity of lead compounds by a hundredfold. Meanwhile, the research and development team can also use public and private datasets on the platform to retrain AI drug-likeness prediction tools, reducing compound synthesis and accelerating the identification of clinical candidate molecules.

Beyond the computing platform, ComMedX successfully completed the construction of its chemical synthesis and bioassay platforms.Possesses integrated early-stage R&D capabilities for small-molecule innovative drugs (MedxIntegra)With the support of the platform, ComMedX has discovered a series of innovative small molecules with good activity and pharmacokinetic properties, and has applied for several related patents. Preclinical research is currently proceeding steadily.

In addition to joint research and development,ComMedX simultaneously provides professional innovative target active small molecule discovery CRO services to pharmaceutical companies and research institutions worldwide.ComMedX provides customized development of bioactive compounds with IP patents for clients, covering a series of technical services including the discovery of small molecule compounds for innovative targets, the development of active compounds such as covalent compounds, allosteric compounds, and PROTACs for difficult-to-drug targets, ADC linker design, optimization of peptide-based drugs like radiopharmaceuticals, and more.

To date, ComMedX's integrated innovative target small molecule development solution has gained market recognition and capital favor.In January and August 2021, ComMedX completed its Angel Round and Pre-A Round of financing, respectively.。

Currently, ComMedX has also completed a developmental leap from 0 to 1, successfully achieving several milestone advancements in joint development. For instance, in March 2024, a research project completed by the ComMedX R&D team in collaboration with Wang Sheng's research group from the Center for Excellence in Molecular Cell Science at the Chinese Academy of Sciences was published in the world's top journal, Cell. The study proposed an innovative design concept of using deformable scaffolds to impart structural flexibility to drug molecules and target multiple receptors with multi-functional active compounds.

Meanwhile, ComMedX is collaborating with universities to develop drugs for the treatment of brain aneurysms. Currently, the team has identified multiple series of molecules, which will be rapidly advanced to the clinical stage in the future. The innovative target project carried out in collaboration with Bai Fang Yingku and Beijing Tongren Hospital has also applied for an international PCT patent.

Relying on its innovative strength and team advantages, ComMedX has successively received multiple honors and awards, including "National High-tech Enterprise Certification of Beijing," "Innovative Small and Medium-sized Enterprise Certification of Beijing," and "Outstanding Award of the 10th 'Dongsheng Cup' International Entrepreneurship Competition."

"The 10-year timeframe, $1 billion investment, and 10% success rate" epitomize the high-risk, high-cost, and low-output journey of new drug development, making "cost reduction and efficiency enhancement" a focal point for nearly all pharmaceutical companies today. The potential efficiency gains from AI in innovative drug development are once again being recognized and valued.

According to calculations by the iResearch Institute, the market size of AI drug research and development in China was 292 million yuan in 2022, and it is expected to reach 774 million yuan by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 38.39%. The rapid market growth is expected to attract more new capital and companies to enter the field, and the vast development potential will also bring more opportunities for participants in the AI pharmaceuticals sector.

In this regard, Dr. Wan Xiaobo expressed, "The future of AI pharmaceuticals is positive and optimistic, with continuous breakthroughs in clinical research and corresponding achievements being produced. In the future,ComMedX will continuously update and iterate its AI technologies and tools, promote their application transformation, and collaborate with other new drug development platform companies to better provide customers with high-value products and services, ultimately achieving a closed-loop business model.”。

Currently,ComMedX is planning its next round of financing to advance the iteration and upgrade of its computation-driven drug design platform, including the development of ChemMate, an integrated drug design tool powered by a chemical large language model.Moreover, based on the existing technology platform, the company has also partnered with multiple proteomics and high-throughput screening platform companies to jointly accelerate the development of differentiated small molecule drugs.

Thanks to Haikuo Tiancheng Club for supporting this article.

References:

1. Huachuang Securities. "Huachuang Pharmaceutical Investment Insights, Research Special Weekly Talk Issue 69: AI Unveils a New Era of Drug Development"