Reverse Type 2 Diabetes! How Does Haizhao Bio Leverage the "Gut-Endocrine Axis" to Reconstruct the Underlying Logic of Metabolism?
The intestine is not only a digestive organ but also a crucial "endocrine organ" in the human body. In this microscopic territory, trillions of microorganisms reside, forming the gut microbiota, which maintains close interactions with the body's overall hormonal system through the "gut-endocrine axis."
Studies have found that the gut microbiota can break down components such as dietary fiber and polyphenols, producing key metabolites like short-chain fatty acids and bile acids. These substances circulate throughout the body via the bloodstream, directly regulating the secretion and activity of insulin, thyroid hormones, and sex hormones. Once the microbial balance is disrupted, the "gut-endocrine axis" becomes imbalanced, leading to hormonal disorders, which in turn trigger various endocrine diseases.
An increasing amount of clinical evidence confirms that the imbalance of intestinal flora has become the core cause of "insulin resistance" in type 2 diabetes and is also the key factor for the prolonged non-healing of the disease.
Against this backdrop, Hefei Haizhao Biotechnology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haizhao Biotech") has chosen to start from the underlying logic of "microecological restoration," by reconstructing the human intestinal microecology, known as the "second genome," to provide a completely new solution for the fundamental reversal of Type 2 diabetes.
Huang Jianzhong, the founder of Haizhao Bio, is not "professionally trained" in biomedicine. He graduated from the Department of Management at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. Prior to starting his business, he had worked for decades in the securities and investment fields, holding positions at Wuhan Technology Trust, Changjiang Securities, AiJian Securities, and Shanghai Dashing Investment Company, accumulating rich experience in finance and industry.
A Turning Point in Fate Began with a Health Crisis. After Huang Jianzhong was diagnosed with malignant lymphoma, he underwent six months of radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Although his condition was brought under control, the side effects of the treatment left him extremely weak and recovering slowly. It was during this difficult period that he accidentally came across a microbial live-bacteria product still in its pilot testing phase. After taking it consistently for half a year, he was surprised to find significant improvement in his physical functions and gradual recovery. This personal experience not only made him deeply aware of the suffering and challenges faced by patients with chronic diseases but also allowed him to truly feel the immense potential of microbiota regulation for health — this "inside-out" repair logic stands in sharp contrast to traditional "antagonistic treatments."
This unique experience became the catalyst for his cross-industry entrepreneurship. Determined to start from his own journey, Huang Jianzhong embarked on addressing chronic metabolic diseases by targeting the fundamental pathway of regulating intestinal microbiota to find a new "key." He set his first goal in the field of type 2 diabetes, driven not only by the vast number of patients—China alone has over 140 million people with type 2 diabetes—but also by the fact that current treatments mainly focus on "control" rather than offering truly effective solutions to "reverse" the disease.
Huang Jianzhong hopes that through the innovative application of microecological live bacteria technology, it will bring breakthrough solutions to this field - this is not only a response to his own health experience, but also a fundamental innovation in the logic of chronic disease treatment.
"Type 2 diabetes is not a single-target disease." Huang Jianzhong mentioned multiple times in the interview that diabetes, from abnormal pancreatic β-cell function, ectopic fat deposition, and hyperfunction of pancreatic α-cells to insufficient secretion of incretins, disordered hepatic glucose metabolism, and abnormal renal glucose excretion, is essentially the result of imbalances across multiple pathways and systems. Current mainstream drugs, whether metformin or GLP-1 receptor agonists, focus essentially on single or limited targets. While they can effectively control blood glucose levels, they cannot fundamentally resolve metabolic disorders, and patients usually require lifelong medication.
HaiZhao Bio chose to intervene in diabetes treatment through gut microbiota based on this complex pathology. The gut is not only the organ for nutrient absorption but also the largest hub for immune and metabolic regulation in the human body. The balance of gut microbiota directly affects metabolic health, which forms the core scientific basis for HaiZhao Bio's development of a multi-strain live bacterial drug.
HaiZhao Biotech’s Compound Probiotic Preparation Utilizes Unique Microecological Restoration Technology, Aligned with the First Principles of the Human Body — The human intestinal flora is a complex microecological system, and it is difficult to completely restore it with just one type of probiotic. Therefore, HaiZhao Biotech has adopted a compound microbial consortium technical approach, simulating the human intestinal environment through the symbiotic action of multiple microbial strains, reconstructing the intestinal ecology, and forming a stable microecological balance. This repairs metabolic functions and fundamentally reverses Type 2 diabetes.
Specifically, Haizhao Bio has achieved the following multi-dimensional treatment mechanisms:
Inhibit Systemic Inflammation:These compound probiotics can activate the intestinal immune system, neutralize endotoxins, suppress systemic inflammatory responses, and reduce the chronic inflammatory burden of diabetes.
Enhanced Sensitivity:Probiotics promote the production of metabolites such as indole propionic acid through the transformation of prebiotics, enhancing insulin sensitivity.
Repair of Islet Function:The metabolic products of complex microbial communities also contain important carriers and small molecule peptides for insulin synthesis. These components can provide key raw materials for the repair of pancreatic β cells, thereby repairing damaged islet function and restoring insulin secretion capacity.
To address the widespread industrial bottlenecks faced by solid powder agents, such as difficulties in colonization and susceptibility to deactivation, Haizhao Biotech has abandoned traditional embedding technology. Instead, it utilizes a native fermentation process to maintain the product's pH at around 3.0, simulating the gastric acid environment. This "pre-adaptation" design enables live bacteria to pass through the gastric barrier with high activity, precisely colonizing the distal intestine. It also ensures the product's stability for up to 18 months at room temperature, resolving the industry pain points of live bacterial drugs being prone to deactivation and difficult to preserve.
This approach, which repairs the autonomous function of islets from the underlying logic rather than merely intervening in blood glucose levels externally, offers the possibility of fundamentally reversing Type 2 diabetes.
Currently, Haizhao Bio's products have been sold on the market as special dietary foods and have entered hospital nutrition departments and off-campus pharmacies through pharmaceutical company agents. In addition, Haizhao Bio also sells its products on online platforms such as JD.com and Taobao, which has preliminarily verified the market's recognition of these products.
Despite the current small revenue scale of Haizhao Bio, its growth mainly relies on user口碑-driven (word-of-mouth-driven) rather than extensive promotional investment. Huang Jianzhong revealed that the company's sales growth is entirely dependent on the accumulation of genuine user feedback and repurchase rates. The efficacy of the products has gradually gained user recognition, laying a foundation for future clinical data accumulation and clinical trials.
At the scientific research level, Haizhao Biotechnology has built a solid "moat." The company has deep cooperation with the State Key Laboratory of Microbiology at Huazhong Agricultural University, where Professor Liang Yunxiang, the director of the laboratory, serves as the chief scientist. The company has also received recognition and academic support from Academician Su Dingfeng.
On the left is Academician Dingfeng Su, and on the right is Jianzhong Huang, founder of Haizhao Biotechnology.
Based on current market feedback and scientific research accumulation, Haizhao Biotech is actively promoting the transformation from special dietary foods to live bacterial drugs. The company has completed toxicology experiments in mice and conducted preliminary research in indications such as diabetic foot and colitis. Currently, Haizhao Biotech is actively engaging with local governments and investment institutions to support the launch of large-scale human clinical trials.
In the second half of the interview, Huang Jianzhong extended his perspective from diabetes to the broader landscape of chronic disease management. He pointed out that the root cause of metabolic diseases and even most chronic illnesses often points to the same core issue — the long-term imbalance of the human microbiome ecosystem. Therefore, compared to "post-event treatment," a more valuable direction may lie in earlier intervention and systemic restoration.
"The current medical system still focuses more on the control of diseases at the backend. The real challenge is how to prevent people from getting sick or to reverse the source of risks when they first appear." Huang Jianzhong emphasized that this is precisely why Haizhao Bio consistently focuses on the overall regulation of the 'micro-ecosystem' rather than a single product.
In his vision, the indications for this system should not be limited to diabetes. The company plans to gradually expand the range of clinical indications through continuous product iteration and validation, and ultimately promote the formal approval of live bacterial drugs, entering a broader disease intervention market.
From the perspective of industry evolution, microecological therapy as a whole is still in its early stages, with scientific understanding, regulatory pathways, and business models all gradually taking shape. Huang Jianzhong believes that it is precisely during such a phase that new technological approaches can truly gain validation and room for growth.
Despite the numerous steps Haizhao Biotech needs to take in R&D, clinical trials, and marketization, it is certain that the intervention approach it represents—centered on microbiome restoration—offers a new solution for metabolic diseases like diabetes. This exploration redefines chronic disease management from a more fundamental logic. We also look forward to such efforts opening up new possibilities for reversal and rehabilitation for more individuals with chronic conditions in the future.