image: The collaboration achieves synergy across the entire value chain from AI-driven design and antibody development to payload-linker chemical synthesis and clinical development, establishing a complete, closed-loop value chain for ADC development, and maximizes the advantage of all parties, driving innovation and development of ADCs efficiently and effectively to provide more treatment options for patients worldwide.
Credit: Insilico Medicine, Mabwell Bioscience, and ChemExpress
Shanghai, September 17, 2025 — Insilico Medicine, Mabwell Bioscience (688062.SH), and ChemExpress (688131.SH) officially announced the signing of a strategic cooperation agreement. The partnership is founded on the principles of complementary strengths, resource sharing, collaborative innovation, and mutual trust. The three parties will jointly develop a novel ADC compound library covering hundreds of targets, screen and advance next-generation ADC candidate molecules, and accelerate the industrialization of innovative ADCs.
This collaboration unites core competencies across the ADC development value chain, establishing a comprehensive innovation system from target discovery to clinical development. As an innovative biopharmaceutical company with end-to-end capabilities, Mabwell owns clinically validated, industry-leading ADC development platform, demonstrating strong research and development (R&D) capabilities and commercialization potential. Mabwell will contribute industry-leading technical support for the collaboration by providing access to its proprietary ADC technology platform, as well as hundreds of monoclonal antibodies and multi-specific antibodies for diverse targets targeting diverse therapeutic areas including oncology and autoimmune diseases.
Insilico Medicine, a global leading biotechnology company powered by generative AI, will leverage its Pharma.AI platform to design novel payload-linkers with innovative structures and high selectivity, based on analyses of disease mechanisms, target characteristics, and toxicological structures. The platform has been thoroughly validated during the development of Rentosertib, the world's first AI-designed drug, which demonstrated the significant advantages of AI technology in drug discovery.
As a global reliable CRO&CDMO partner, ChemExpress is committed to offering an extensive library of molecular building blocks and reference compounds, along with robust technical support for linker payload synthesis. In collaboration with Mabwell Bioscience and Insilico Medicine, ChemExpress will deliver comprehensive, end-to-end services spanning drug discovery, clinical development, and commercialization.
The strategic partnership is an innovative breakthrough for the biopharmaceutical industry in China’s ADC field. It combines AI technology with traditional drug development to pioneer a new model of ADC development, which enables the prediction of drug potency and safety at the molecular design stage, shortening the time required for molecular optimization, a process that traditionally takes several years, and greatly enhances R&D efficiency. The collaboration achieves synergy across the entire value chain from AI-driven design and antibody development to payload-linker chemical synthesis and clinical development, establishing a complete, closed-loop value chain for ADC development, and maximizes the advantage of all parties, driving innovation and development of ADCs efficiently and effectively to provide more treatment options for patients worldwide.
"Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), known as ‘magic bullets’, demonstrate tremendous potential in cancer therapy, based on unique mechanisms and high targeting specificity. ADCs are among the novel therapeutic areas that Insilico Medicine has long focused on and invested in," said Dr. Feng Ren, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine. "Through our three-way collaboration with Mabwell and ChemExpress, we have pioneered a new ‘ABC’ (AI+BioTech/BioPharma+ CRO/CDMO) model for ADC drug development—integrating AI power, Biotech/Biopharma drive, and CRO/CDMO implementation to form a deep synergy across the value chain. We believe the innovative model will keep accelerating ADC drug development, allowing safer and more effective treatment options to benefit patients worldwide even earlier."
Dr. Liu Datao, chairman of the board and CEO of Mabwell, stated, "This collaboration demonstrates our innovation strategy in the field of ADC. Over the years, Mabwell has accumulated extensive resources in developing antibodies. The collaboration with Insilico, a leader in AI technology, and ChemExpress, a leader in chemical synthesis will enable us to accelerate the development of innovative ADCs with our respective strengths. Our goal is to establish a novel, broad payload compound library targeting a broad spectrum of targets, accelerating the development of ADCs with superior clinical efficacy. Ultimately, we aim to deliver more effective treatment options to cancer patients worldwide."
Dr. Baofu Zheng, CEO of ChemExpress, commented, " This strategic collaboration marks an important step forward in ADC drug development. By integrating ChemExpress’s expertise in payload-linker chemistry with Mabwell’s antibody platform and Insilico’s cutting-edge AI drug discovery capabilities, we will accelerate the development of innovative ADCs. Through efficient resource integration and technological innovation, we aim to optimize candidate discovery and development, delivering faster and more precise therapeutic solutions for patients worldwide. This partnership not only reflects ChemExpress’s open and collaborative philosophy, but also demonstrates our commitment to driving industry progress. We will continue to work closely with our partners to explore frontier technologies, strengthen industry collaboration, and create greater value for global drug innovation."
About Insilico Medicine
Insilico Medicine, a global clinical stage biotechnology company powered by generative AI, is connecting biology, chemistry, medicine and science research using next-generation AI systems. The company has developed AI platforms that utilize deep generative models, reinforcement learning, transformers, and other modern machine learning techniques for novel target discovery and the generation of novel molecular structures with desired properties. Insilico Medicine is developing breakthrough solutions to discover and develop innovative drugs for cancer, fibrosis, central nervous system diseases, infectious diseases, autoimmune diseases, and aging-related diseases. www.insilico.com
About Mabwell
Mabwell (688062.SH) is an innovation-driven biopharmaceutical company with capabilities spanning the entire pharmaceutical value chain. The company is committed to providing more effective and accessible therapies to meet global medical needs, with a focus on oncology and aging-related diseases. Mabwell’s mission is “Explore Life, Benefit Health” and its vision is “Innovation, from Ideas to Reality.” For more information, please visit www.mabwell.com/en.
About ChemExpress
Founded in 2006, ChemExpress specializes in offering CRO & CDMO services for pharmaceutical and biotech companies, focusing on small molecules, biologics and new modalities such as ADCs/XDCs, peptides and PROTACs. Our comprehensive platform is engaged in the research and development, manufacturing and supply of regulatory starting materials, novel building blocks, intermediates, reference compounds, APIs and drug products. We support our clients' projects from early drug discovery, process development to commercialization. Over the past 19 years, we have established a state-of-the-art QC/QA system aligning with ICH guidelines for pharmaceutical manufacturing. We provide our clients with high-quality products and CMC services across the entire life-cycle of drug development. For more information, please visit: www.chemexpress.com