As a high standard CDMO, Porton has outstanding integrated experiences in process and crystallization R&D for innovative drugs, including a number of blockbusters, from lab scale to commercial scale manufacturing, while XtalPi possesses cutting-edge technology of Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform. The two parties will initiate in-depth collaboration in various fields beyond crystal structure prediction, involving crystallization R&D, intelligent drug discovery and development, and market development in biologics and drug formulation. Porton and XtalPi will work closely to integrate computing ⇔ experimentation ⇔ process development and manufacturing for better services in drug design, solid state R&D, and process development. This collaboration should improve the efficiency of drug development and manufacturing, and let innovative drugs benefit more patients faster.

At the same time, J-Star Research, a subsidiary of Porton, signed a collaboration agreement on crystallization technologies with XtalPi’s US operation. The two sides will combine their synergetic advantages in the above mentioned fields, and first of all develop better methodologies that can solve bottleneck problems associated with crystallization more effectively in serving drug development programs.

XtalPi has developed a series of small-molecule crystal structure prediction and drug solid-state designing and screening technology, and provides innovative solutions to improve the quality and efficiency of solid state R&D with quantum physics, computational chemistry, artificial intelligence, and cloud computing technology. In applying XtalPi‘s AI and computational chemistry tools to the bottleneck problems identified and addressed by J-Star’s subject matter experts with rich pharma crystallization R&D experiences, this collaboration will provide more reliable, efficient, and cutting-edge solutions for pharmaceutical giants and biotechs.

This strategic cooperation between Porton and XtalPi is of far-reaching significance at a time when human health is under the challenge of the COVID-19 global epidemic. Being innovation-oriented enterprises, we feel it is our mission to help our clients to make effective medicines available to patients as soon as possible. At the cloud signing ceremony, Porton and XtalPi expressed their delight and expectations for fruitful strategic cooperation that will benefit their clients in the long run.

XtalPi is committed to the innovation and exploration of AI-powered pharmaceutical technologies with a strong focus on breakthrough research advancements with broad industry application potentials, while Porton is a leading CDMO with abundant experience in experimental research", said Dr. Jian Ma, co-founder and CEO of XtalPi. " In the past two years, we saw an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies that have integrated crystal structure prediction into their standard research process, especially when dealing with complex compounds and challenging molecular systems. We believe that combining computational technologies with targeted experiments is the future for more intelligent pharmaceutical research. XtalPi and Porton are two companies in closely related fields with complimenting skillsets. We are excited to work with Porton in combining machine-learning algorithms with high-quality experimental data to develop new prediction models that can improve upon existing research methods and address bottleneck challenges in the industry. "

 “The outbreak of COVID-19 has reflected on two aspects for me. First, human beings still need to explore and reserve knowledge and technology to deal with potential major disease problems in the future. Secondly, more cooperation will be needed as the resources and capabilities of individuals are limited. It is necessary for human beings to work together to explore and cooperate in multi-disciplinary fields. Therefore, I’m glad that Porton XtalPi have reached our strategic collaboration today,” said Oliver Ju, Chairman and CEO of Porton, “As one of the leading CDMO companies, Porton focuses on building the world's leading pharmaceutical process R&D and manufacturing platform through our state-of-the-art technologies platform such as crystallization, biocatalysis, complex chemistry and our customer-driven excellent service. Porton also attaches great importance to the development and application of cutting-edge technologies. As a pioneer in the field of AI pharmaceutical technology in China, XtalPi is reinventing the industry’s approach to drug R&D with its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform. Founded by a group of quantum physicists at MIT, XtalPi has built an elite team with multi-disciplinary expertise in physics, chemistry, pharmaceutical R&D. We believe that this strategic collaboration will combine cutting-edge scientific advances with the best practices in crystallization and formulation development to create a new benchmark for the industry in drug design and solid state research. We also look forward to closer cooperation between us in drug development and manufacturing to jointly explore innovative technology solutions.”

In this extraordinary time, Porton and XtalPi decided to initiate our cooperation with an innovative “cloud signing ceremony” instead of the traditional signing ceremony. The ceremony is held at five venues simultaneously. We completed our online agreement signing between Porton and XtalPi at Porton’s headquarter in Chongqing, branch venue in Suzhou, XtalPi’s Computing R&D Center in Shenzhen and XtalPi AI Research Center in Beijing. At the same time, representatives from J-Star and XtalPi’s US operation attended the ceremony and completed their agreement signing on site at the Cranbury site of J-Star. 

About XtalPi

XtalPi is a pharmaceutical technology company that is reinventing the industry’s approach to drug research and development with its Intelligent Digital Drug Discovery and Development (ID4) platform. With tightly interwoven quantum physics, artificial intelligence, and high-performance cloud computing algorithms, XtalPi’s ID4 platform provides accurate predictions on the physiochemical and pharmaceutical properties of small-molecule candidates for drug design, solid-form selection, and other critical aspects of drug development. XtalPi is dedicated to improving the efficiency, accuracy, and success rate of drug research and development, and contributing to a healthier society worldwide.
 
Founded in 2014 by a group of quantum physicists at MIT, XtalPi has since built an elite team with multi-disciplinary expertise in physics, chemistry, pharmaceutical R&D, and algorithm design. XtalPi’s cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, and diverse applications across the pharmaceutical value chain have helped it gain industry approval and establish strategic partnerships with top international pharmaceutical companies.

About Porton
Founded in July, 2005, Porton Pharma Solution Ltd. is a Chinese top-tier contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) which provides one-stop CDMO services for both chemical drugs from APIs to formulation and biological drugs for global pharmaceutical companies and biotechs. It is committed to building the world’s leading pharma solutions platform, enabling the transformation from molecules to medicines with continuous improvements in speed and cost. Backed by more than 2,000 customer-centric employees, cutting-edge Process R&D Centers, USFDA, PMDA, EMA and NMPA-inspected cGMP production sites in China (Chongqing, Chengdu, Shanghai, Jiangxi and Suzhou) and sales offices located across Asia, North America and Europe, Porton has an outstanding tracking record for  more than 1000 projects delivered to around 400 global customers.
 
About J-Star
J-STAR Research, Inc. (hereafter referred to as J-star) is an innovative CRO serving as an outsourcing partner for the pharma and bio industries. Founded in 1996 by Dr. Andrew Thompson, formerly of Merck Research Laboratories, J-Star has become a leading provider of services in complex organic synthesis and crystallization for a variety of pharmaceutical clients globally. Through 20 some years of services, J-Star has accumulated excellent reputation as a trustworthy partner in North America. In 2017, Porton USA, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Porton Pharma Solutions Ltd. acquired J-Star. After more than two years of integration, J-Star has developed into a multi-disciplinary team of more than 100 employees (including 67 doctoral scientists) with profound experiences in small molecule drug process research and crystallization R&D. It has gathered many top talents each with over 10-30 years of R&D tenures in world leading pharma companies. Integrating CDMO services from Porton, J-Star can provide scientifically rigor and practically effective one-stop solutions for its global pharmaceutical clients.