Victor Li’s CK Life Sciences teams up with Chinese AI pharmaceutical firm XtalPi to develop cancer vaccines

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The Hong Kong-listed healthcare company and XtalPi aim to use an AI platform to discover and design preclinical tumour vaccine candidates

It is the latest partnership between an artificial intelligence-powered innovator and a traditional healthcare company, as AI adoption in the drugs sector accelerates

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The AI-based drug discovery market is expected to grow to US$5.6 billion by 2029 from US$626.6 million last year. Photo: Shutterstock

Iris Ouyang

Published: 5:15pm, 25 Nov 2022

CK Hutchison Group’s healthcare unit has joined forces with Chinese medical technology company XtalPi to develop a platform for cancer vaccine research and development.

Hong Kong-listed CK Life Sciences, chaired by tycoon Victor Li Tzar-kuoi, and XtalPi aim to use the platform to discover and design preclinical tumour vaccine candidates, according to a press release on Friday.

The platform “applies advanced AI algorithms and high-precision molecular modelling to predict and design a variety of tumour vaccines that can activate specific immune responses to kill tumours,” it said.

The deal is the latest partnership between an artificial intelligence-powered innovator and a traditional healthcare company, as AI adoption in the pharmaceutical sector accelerates. The AI-based drug discovery market is expected to grow to US$5.6 billion by 2029 from US$626.6 million last year, according to Polaris Market Research.

In the last three years, such collaborations have jumped in China, according to research by the Boston Consulting Group in April. There was one strategic tie-up in 2019, two in 2020 and four in 2021, BCG said.

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XtalPi recently announced it will provide services to Xi’an Jassen Pharmaceutical, owned by the American giant Johnson & Johnson. XtalPi, established in 2015, is one of the rising Chinese AI drug discovery companies trying to catch up with their international peers which were founded as early as a decade ago.