Ailux Appoints Dr. Maria G. Belvisi as Chief Scientific Officer to Accelerate Global R&D Strategy

By XtalPi (2228.HK) founded and wholly-owned biotechnology company Ailux announced today the appointment of Dr. Maria G. Belvisi as Chief Scientific Officer (CSO). Dr. Belvisi is a distinguished scholar and industry leader in the global respiratory and immunology fields, with dual roles as a senior executive of multinational pharmaceutical companies and an international academic expert. She has over thirty years of experience in new drug development and academic leadership, including nearly a decade at AstraZeneca, where she served as Senior Vice President of Respiratory and Immunology in the biopharmaceutical R&D division. She will report directly to Dr. Li Yi, CEO of Ailux and Executive Vice President of XtalPi.

Headquartered in Shanghai, Ailux is an AI-native biotechnology company dedicated to developing next-generation innovative macromolecular drugs. Incubated by XtalPi and now its wholly-owned subsidiary, Ailux operates with an independent team, self-developed platforms, and pipelines, integrating its proprietary AI macromolecule drug discovery platform with a 3,000-square-meter wet lab. Currently, Ailux has approximately 150 employees globally, located across China, the UK, and the US. The company collaborates with Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, and UCB based on its AI platform and is actively advancing its self-developed pipeline, with the first project expected to enter clinical development by 2027.

Dr. Belvisi joined AstraZeneca in 2017 and has served as Senior Vice President since 2019, leading the global Respiratory and Immunology R&D organization and managing approximately 500 scientists based in the UK, Sweden, the US, and Spain. During her tenure, she has spearheaded the development of one of the most innovative and productive pipelines in the respiratory and immunology field, with end-to-end responsibility for the entire process from target identification to Phase III clinical investment decisions. Last month, the potential first-in-class IL-33 antibody, toralizumab, which she advanced from the preclinical stage to Phase III clinical investment decision, was highlighted.Tozorakimab Achieves Primary Endpoints in Both OBERON and TITANIA Phase III Clinical Trials for COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), Widely Recognized as a Milestone Breakthrough in the Field, with Predicted Annual Sales Peak of $5 Billion.

Outside the pharmaceutical industry, Dr. Belvisi has long served as Professor of Respiratory Pharmacology at the National Heart and Lung Institute of Imperial College London, a position she holds to this day. During her leadership of the Imperial research team, she mentored over thirty PhD students and published more than 250 peer-reviewed papers. She is a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences, a Fellow of the European Respiratory Society, and a Fellow of the British Pharmacological Society, and was named one of the "20 Outstanding Women in Biopharma" by Endpoints News in 2021.” List. After joining Ailux, Dr. Belvisi will also lead the establishment of Ailux's UK research and development center, further deepening Ailux's strategic layout in the global top biomedicine research ecosystem.

Ailux CEO Li Yi stated:"Maria is the scientific leader that Ailux needs in its new stage of development. Over her more than thirty-year career, she has repeatedly led teams to transform innovative mechanisms into drugs that truly benefit patients. Maria’s joining marks Ailux's accelerated transformation from an AI-driven large molecule drug discovery platform to a fully integrated pharmaceutical R&D company."

Ailux Chief Scientific Officer Dr. Belvisi stated:"What attracted me to join Ailux is the true integration of AI and biology here. AI is not just an add-on tool for traditional drug discovery processes; it is an essential core foundation throughout the entire journey from project conception to execution. Ailux's platform and team already have a solid foundation for discovering first-in-class and best-in-class drugs. I look forward to working with the entire team to build a world-class company that can continuously bring breakthrough therapies to patients worldwide."

Dr. Ma Jian, co-founder and CEO of XtalPi, said:"Ailux is an important component of XtalPi's AI pharmaceutical strategy and our core layout for next-generation macromolecular drugs. Maria’s joining marks a true milestone in the development journey of both XtalPi and Ailux. The scientific leadership she has demonstrated in multinational pharmaceutical companies, along with her ability to shape innovative pipelines, is highly complementary to our AI-driven drug discovery platform. XtalPi will fully support the long-term development of Ailux, and we look forward to seeing Maria and the team transform world-class science into truly patient-benefiting innovative medicines."