XtalPi Inc., an algorithm-driven artificial intelligence (AI) pharmaceutical technology company, and Porton Pharma Solutions, a contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), have entered a collaboration to integrate XtalPi’s next-generation computational tools with Porton’s experimental expertise to further empower pharmaceutical research in drug design and pre-clinical development. The two companies will initiate in-depth collaboration in drug crystallization and process development services, intelligent drug discovery and development research, and business expansion in biologics and formulation.
 
Under the agreement, XtalPi and Porton will offer prediction and experimental services that couple XtalPi’s drug solid-state screening and designing solutions, such as crystal structure prediction (CSP), and cocrystal and solid-solvate propensity prediction, with Porton’s broad range of experimental offerings. The two companies will leverage computational insights to design more targeted experiments and extensively optimize the crystallization research and drug solid-state development process. This cooperated approach aims to increase the efficiency and success rate of drug pre-clinical research, ensure development timeline and product quality, and support key decision-making in identifying and optimizing the ideal active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) form for clinical trial and mass production.
 
As a first step in a series of projects, XtalPi and J-Star Research, Porton’s New Jersey-based subsidiary and a contracted research organization (CRO), also signed a sub-agreement to launch prediction-guided crystallization and solid-state research services for their U.S. customers. In addition, the two companies will combine XtalPi’s AI and molecular mechanics algorithms and J-Star’s experimental data to develop new prediction models and research methods for important unmet challenges in drug crystallization related fields.
 
“In the past two years, we saw an increasing number of pharmaceutical companies adopt CSP into their standard research process, especially when dealing with complex compounds and challenging molecular systems,” said Jian Ma, co-founder and chief executive officer, XtalPi. “XtalPi and Porton are two companies in closely related fields with complementing skillsets. We are excited to work with Porton to combine machine learning algorithms with high-quality experimental data to develop new prediction models that can improve upon existing research methods and address the bottleneck challenges in the industry.”
 
Oliver Ju, chairman and chief executive officer, Porton, said, “Porton also attaches great importance to the development and application of cutting-edge technologies. 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.”