Watson Biologics and Zhiyu Bio Announce Strategic Partnership to Empower Vaccine R&D and Biomanufacturing with AI

Walvax Biotechnology Co., Ltd. ("Walvax") recently established a strategic partnership with Zelixir, the innovative pioneer in AI synthetic biology.

This collaboration aims to deeply integrate Walvax's strong capabilities in vaccine research, production, and industrialization with Zelixir's cutting-edge technology in AI biological computing. Together, they will explore the application of artificial intelligence in human vaccine research, production, and commercialization, accelerating technological innovation and the intelligent process in the vaccine industry.

Walvax, as a high-tech biopharmaceutical enterprise focused on human vaccines, is in a leading position in the industry within the细分领域 of biotechnology drugs represented by novel vaccines. The company is committed to the research and development of innovative vaccines and has established four major technology platforms: bacterial vaccines, recombinant protein vaccines, mRNA vaccines, and recombinant adenovirus vector vaccines. With eight vaccine products (14 specifications) approved for marketing, Walvax has become the company with the most competitive advantages in terms of the number of self-developed vaccine products and variety layout in China.

Zelixir is an integrated bio-manufacturing company that drives innovation and application in synthetic biology through AI technology. The company owns the world's leading protein AI design platform, and its founder, Dr. Wang Sheng, led his team to win multiple championships in the globally renowned protein computing competition CASP. The large model algorithm developed by the team, "Pathfinding, Enzyme Mining, and Enzyme Modification," significantly improves the efficiency of new enzyme discovery and biosynthesis pathway design. Zelixir undertakes key R&D projects from China’s Ministry of Science and Technology, holds nearly 20 invention patents, and has built the first AI technology full-process production base. It has achieved commercialization of high-value products such as ferulic acid vanillin (the world's first AI-designed enzyme achieving mass production of vanillin at the hundred-ton level) in areas like food additives and nutritional health products.

Based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, and complementary advantages, the core of this strategic cooperation between the two parties is to apply Zelixir's globally leading bio-computing technology, which combines AI modeling with physical simulations, to Walvax's human vaccine research and development field. The key areas of focus include accelerating protein (including enzymes) discovery and design processes using AI technology, providing AI bio-computing platform licensing services to build intelligent R&D infrastructure, and offering deeply customized AI bio-computing solutions tailored to the specific needs of certain vaccine products.

AI Technology Is Profoundly Transforming Vaccine Development Paradigms: Its applications in target identification, antigen design, and immunogenicity prediction have significantly improved R&D efficiency. The collaboration between Walvax and Zelixir marks an important step in the deep integration of the biopharmaceutical industry with cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies. By leveraging their respective strengths in vaccine R&D industrialization and AI-driven biocomputing, both parties are committed to enhancing the efficiency and success rate of vaccine development through technological innovation, driving the intelligent and green transformation of China’s vaccine industry. This partnership not only provides strong technological support for Walvax's goal of becoming a world-class vaccine enterprise but also aims to contribute innovative strength toward the implementation of the "Healthy China" strategy and the advancement of global public health, paving the way for a healthier and more sustainable future for humanity.