HKEX Stock Surge: XtalPi Inc. (02228) Rises Nearly 7% Following Collaboration Agreement with Baicheng Medicine to Advance AI-Driven Drug Discovery

According to the Zhongtong Finance APP, XtalPi Holdings Limited (02228) rose nearly 7% in early trading, with its share price doubling from early August till now. As of press time, it increased by 5.55%, trading at HK$12.37, with a turnover of HK$448 million.

On the news front, XtalPi and Bio-S (301096.SZ) announced the signing of a letter of intent for cooperation. According to the letter of intent, Bio-S will entrust XtalPi to carry out new drug research and development using its "AI + robotics" platform; XtalPi will entrust Bio-S to conduct pharmaceutical research and other R&D work. The two parties also plan to address unmet clinical needs in multiple disease areas such as pain, drowsiness, oncology, autoimmune diseases, and ophthalmology by leveraging XtalPi’s AI-driven drug discovery platform to jointly advance the R&D and incubation of innovative drug pipelines. They will also explore the establishment of a joint venture at an appropriate time to expand their commercial cooperation into broader fields.

GF Securities stated that XtalPi positions itself as a third-party service provider driven by AI for drug research and development, serving both pharmaceutical companies and Biotech firms. Its pipeline is mainly based on collaborations, emphasizing technical neutrality rather than locking clients into the ecosystem of a large pharmaceutical company, making it more of a technology supplier to its clients. Based on data security and ecosystem considerations, pharmaceutical companies and Biotech firms tend to collaborate with independent third-party vendors. Therefore, third-party AI pharmaceutical platforms like XtalPi are expected to become an infrastructure role in the industry. As AI penetrates deeper into the drug discovery process, the value of third-party platforms will continue to grow. In the long term, their business model is more sustainable, with greater potential market space.