UCB and XtalPi Enter Licensing Agreement to Advance Biologics Discovery with AI Platform XtalFold™

China Finance Network January 9th: UCB and XtalPi announced today that they have signed a licensing agreement to collaborate on XtalPi's biologics AI platform XtalFold, developed under its brand Ailux Biologics.^™Expand.

According to the agreement, Ailux Biologics will grant UCB a non-exclusive license to use XtalFold, which was independently developed by Ailux Biologics.^™AI Platform for the Discovery and Engineering Design of Macromolecular Drugs. XtalFold^™It is an AI-based proprietary software suite that provides rapid and accurate structural analysis, thereby accelerating the innovation process of biologics across various R&D stages.

Dr. Ma Jian, CEO and co-founder of XtalPi, stated: "UCB has always been committed to leveraging advanced computational technologies to drive innovation in the biologics field, ultimately benefiting patients worldwide. We are deeply honored to collaborate with such an innovation-driven company to jointly create a new chapter in transforming patient outcomes."

"The recent Nobel Prize awarding fully demonstrates the pioneering significance of protein structure prediction in the scientific field. And XtalFold^™"It is precisely this technology that serves as a model for industrial application. As a fully validated commercial solution, it is rapidly gaining popularity within the industry." Li Yi, Vice President of XtalPi and head of the Ailux brand, stated, "We are very pleased to partner with UCB to further explore the potential of this technology and bring more breakthroughs to the life sciences field."

According to the introduction, XtalFold^™Modeling the interactions between biomacromolecules using sequence information, which are the basis for the efficacy of macromolecular drugs such as monoclonal antibodies. In rigorous benchmarking, XtalFold^™Not only does it perform exceptionally well in overall success rates, but it also achieves industry-leading levels in modeling quality for complex regions such as antibody-antigen interfaces. Currently, XtalFold^™It has been authorized to multiple global pharmaceutical companies and played a key role in various R&D projects, including antigen design, epitope identification, affinity maturation, pH sensitivity modification, and bispecific antibody design, among others.

Daniel Lightwood, Head of Antibody Discovery and Optimization at UCB, stated that UCB has accumulated extensive experience in the fields of antibody discovery and engineering, and has established unique and efficient single B-cell screening technology and in vitro display discovery technology to support the identification of precise hits. Meanwhile, UCB is an industry leader in structural biology and computer-aided molecular optimization. "The introduction of XtalFold this time^™The platform will further drive the iteration and upgrading of our R&D technology, deeply integrating structural insights of antibodies and antigens into the entire process of antibody discovery and optimization, injecting more possibilities into scientific exploration."

"After rigorous testing and comprehensive comparison with other computational methods, we ultimately decided to introduce XtalFold."^™Platform. We firmly believe that this technology will significantly enhance UCB's capabilities in rapidly discovering high-quality antibody drugs, bringing more breakthrough treatment options to patients and opening a new chapter in the field of life sciences." Alexander Hillisch, Global Head of CADD (Computer-Aided Drug Design) at UCB, added.