Shenzhen-based XtalPi posted a 615 per cent surge in first-half revenue from its drug-discovery business following a blockbuster deal that highlighted China’s growing importance as a source of biotechnology innovation for the global pharmaceutical industry.
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Revenue from drug discovery soared to 435 million yuan (US$61 million) in the first half after the company collected the first US$51 million from an August agreement with US-based DoveTree, according to its earnings announcement on Wednesday. DoveTree, founded by Harvard University chemist Gregory Verdine, would pay an additional US$49 million in the coming six months, according to XtalPi.
First-half net profit for the company, which listed in Hong Kong in June 2024, reached 141.6 million yuan, swinging from a loss of 251.4 million yuan a year earlier. Overall revenue jumped 404 per cent to 517.1 million yuan, while revenue from intelligent robotics grew 96 per cent to 81.9 million yuan, driven by demand for automated chemical synthesis services and research and development solutions.
XtalPi’s US$6 billion deal with DoveTree gives the latter exclusive global rights to develop and commercialise drug candidates that XtalPi discovers using its drug-discovery platform, which is powered by AI and robotics. The deal covers small-molecule and antibody drugs targeting areas including oncology, immunologic diseases and neurological disorders.
In the first half of 2025, US companies signed 14 licensing agreements worth about US$18.3 billion with Chinese biotech firms, compared with just two such deals a year earlier, according to a Reuters report in June.
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XtalPi was founded in 2015 by three quantum physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: Wen Shuhao, Ma Jian and Lai Lipeng. It claims its proprietary integration of robotics and AI is able to shorten drug-discovery timelines from four years to as little as one or two years.
XtalPi’s listing under the Hong Kong stock market’s Chapter 18C listing rules, which target high-growth technology start-ups, raised HK$989.3 million.