Shanghai, October 28, 2025 — Bayer Pharma China Open Innovation Day 2025 was held today at Bayer Co.Lab Shanghai, where the winners of the inaugural Bayer China Innovation Pitch were unveiled. Six biotech companies were recognized for breakthrough innovations focusing on oncology, cardiovascular and renal diseases, immunology, and cutting-edge technology platforms. This not only underscores Bayer’s strong recognition of China’s capabilities in innovation and drug research and development, but also marks a key step in advancing its innovation strategy in the country.
Under the theme “Collaborate to Cure,” the event brought together Bayer’s global and China leaders from Research & Development, Business Development & Licensing, and Intellectual Property, alongside industry experts, research institutions, investment organizations, biotech startup and ecosystem partners. Participants engaged in in-depth discussions on the development of China’s pharmaceutical industry, scientific breakthrough, and future collaboration opportunities, reaffirming Bayer’s commitment to deeply integrating into China’s innovation ecosystem and strengthening its open innovation and external collaboration.
“Through the Bayer Pharma China Open Innovation Day, we aim to bring together brilliant minds, combining global perspectives with local insights, and to jointly shape the future of pharmaceutical innovation,” said Qi Li, Vice President, Head of R&D Center Beijing and Regulatory Affairs China, Bayer Pharmaceuticals, “Bayer continues to advance its innovation and R&D strategy through diverse, open, and agile partnerships, accelerating the development of new therapies and realizing our vision of ‘In China for Global, In Global for China.’”
In recent years, Bayer has sharpened its focus in R&D to build a highly differentiated pipeline for long-term growth in oncology, cardiovascular and renal diseases, neurology and rare diseases, and immunology. In oncology and cardiovascular and renal diseases, Bayer integrates its internal R&D strengths with external partnerships to advance precision therapies that deliver breakthrough treatments for patients. By maintaining rigorous assessment and prioritization, Bayer Pharmaceuticals is fully dedicated to therapeutic areas with the highest unmet needs and greatest potential value. Bayer regards China as both a core strategic market and a key source of global pharmaceutical innovation. The company is exploring diverse external collaboration models, harnessing multiple innovation drivers, and actively building an ecosystem that fosters collaborations among industry, academia, research institutions, entrepreneurs and investment organizations.
The inaugural Bayer China Innovation Pitch was launched in July 2025, aiming to deeply explore cutting-edge innovations in Chinese biotech, accelerate the innovation process of local startups, and lead the future development of the pharmaceutical industry in China and globally. Six biotech companies stood out as final winners, earning high praise from Bayer’s global judging panel of scientists and experts for excellence in scientific breakthrough, addressing clinical needs, competitive advantage and differentiation, and proof-of-concept feasibility.
In oncology:
Zhiben Pharma focuses on tumor resistance mechanisms and leverages the translational achievements of top research institutes to pursue breakthroughs.
Groovy Medicine has developed a proprietary high-dimensional biology algorithm that extracts multidimensional data to help identify effective, specific, and easily druggable targets for difficult-to-treat diseases.
Arbele concentrates on next-generation immunotherapies for solid tumors and drives fast translation from research to clinical application.
In cardiovascular, renal, and immunology:
AlphaMol is advancing a key GPCR target family via an AI-driven platform, with its first-in-class program already in clinical research;
EnnovaBio focuses on autoimmune diseases, chronic inflammation, and metabolic complications, demonstrating strong potential in exploring new mechanisms of action.
In advanced technology platforms: Xellar Biosystems integrates organ-on-a-chip systems with high-content 3D cell imaging, computer vision, and artificial intelligence to accelerate drug discovery and precision medicine research.
The six winners will each receive an exclusive grant and support from Bayer, including Bayer Co.Lab incubation funding, tailor-made mentorship from Bayer and industry experts, access to Bayer Co.Lab global biotech roadshow, and connection to the Bayer Co.Lab AdVenture partners, all designed to accelerate their innovations and bring transformative therapies and solutions to patients sooner.
“The quality and pace of biotech innovation in China are remarkable, making it an indispensable part of the global R&D landscape,” said Dominik Ruettinger, M.D., Ph.D., Senior Vice President and Global Head of Research and Early Development for Oncology at Bayer’s Pharmaceuticals Division. “Bayer is deeply interested in external innovations aligned with our R&D strategy, and we look forward to collaborating with Chinese partners to bring breakthrough innovations into our pipeline, for the benefit of patients worldwide.”
Bayer continues to foster open innovation and external collaborations, accelerating the global clinical translation of emerging innovation in China. Earlier this year, Bayer signed a global licensing agreement with Puhe Biopharma for an oral small-molecule PRMT5 inhibitor that selectively targets MTAP-deleted tumors. With the first patient successfully enrolled in a Phase I first-in-human dose-escalation clinical trial, this marks a crucial milestone toward delivering innovative therapies to patients.
As a cornerstone of Bayer’s open innovation strategy, its Bayer Co.Lab, global life sciences incubator network, continues to empower biotech startups by connecting them to Bayer’s global expertise and networks. Since opening in China in September 2024, Bayer Co.Lab has attracted numerous local high-potential startups as its residents, forming a dynamic biotech innovation cluster covering key selected therapeutic areas and pioneering technologies platforms. During the Bayer Pharma China Open Innovation Day, Nutshell Therapeutics, a leader in AI-driven allosteric small-molecule drug discovery, announced its to move into the site of Bayer Co.Lab in Shanghai. Going forward, the two parties will explore potential collaboration based on the AI-enabled ALLOSTAR™ platform for allosteric drug development.
New resident company to Bayer Co.Lab - Nutshell Therapeutics*
Nutshell Therapeutics is a clinical-stage biotech company specialized in the discovery and development of small-molecule allosteric drugs to tackle historically undruggable targets. We have established a proprietary AI + physics based computational platform named ALLOSTAR™ that can identify the potential allosteric pockets on novel proteins, evaluate allosteric effects, and denovo-generate or optimize allosteric ligands. To address the unmet medical needs and fully leverage the advantages of small-molecule allosteric drugs as well as our technical expertise, we have built strong pipelines with potential BIC/FIC allosteric activator or inhibitor molecules in the therapeutic focus of oncology, cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
*The above company profile is provided by the resident company.
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Winners of the 2025 Bayer China Innovation Pitch*
Zhiben Pharma
Zhiben Pharma, founded in 2021, leverages original scientific achievements from Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for translational development. The company operates under a unique VLC (VC + Lab + CRO) asset-light model, efficiently integrating capital, research, and industrial resources to accelerate the clinical translation of world-leading original scientific achievements. Zhiben focuses on small-molecule drug discovery, targeting major unmet clinical needs such as tumor drug resistance and severe infections. Patient-centered, Zhiben Pharma is committed to developing first-in-class or best-in-class breakthrough therapies, bringing outstanding Chinese innovations to benefit patients worldwide.
Groovy Medicine
To address “undruggable targets” and “unclear disease mechanisms” as key challenges and focal points in new drug development, Groovy Medicine is dedicated to accumulating high-dimensional, high-quality biological data. Leveraging its self-developed target discovery platform, the company has successfully identified novel targets with unprecedented mechanisms and efficiently advanced them to the preclinical candidate compound stage. With a pipeline of over ten projects, its core program GW-01 is expected to submit clinical trial applications in China and the U.S. within the year. The company has completed two rounds of financing and raised nearly 100 million RMB.
Arbele
Arbele is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company advancing next-generation immunotherapies to improve outcomes for patients with advanced solid tumors. The company is headquartered in Hong Kong with operations in Mainland China, the United States, Australia, and Singapore. Arbele develops targeted biologics — including multi-specific antibody therapeutics, antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs), and cell therapies — with a strategic focus on CDH17-directed T-cell engagers. Arbele’s lead program, ARB202, is a CDH17-targeted T-cell engager that has completed Phase 1 dose escalation safety studies and is currently in dose expansion and optimization trials for advanced gastrointestinal cancers. Complementing its therapeutic pipeline, Arbele has established in vitro diagnostic (IVD) and companion diagnostic (CDx) tests to detect CDH17 biomarkers in blood and tissue samples, enabling precise patient selection and prognostication. Guided by an experienced leadership team and strategic collaborations, Arbele integrates scientific excellence with operational execution to deliver transformative cancer care.
AlphaMol
AlphaMol Science Ltd is a clinical-stage drug discovery company, focusing on G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) drug development via dedicated biotechnology. AlphaMol established a dedicated GPCR-purposed AI platform for drug discovery. In the GPCR-DOCK 2021 global contest, AlphaMol defeated Google’s AlphaFold2 for the five nominated targets, with 60% higher accuracy. In 2022, the cofounders of AlphaMol were in the list of “top 2%” scientists in the world. Thanks to the outstanding GPCR-AI drug discovery platform, AlphaMol managed to develop first-in-class clinical candidates within a few months. Our leading first-in-class autoimmune asset against MRGPRX2 receptor is currently in Phase 1 study.
EnnovaBio
Shanghai EnnovaBio Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. is a clinical-stage biotech company led by a group of seasoned drug discovery and development scientists, focusing on delivering first-in-class innovative treatments for inflammation and metabolic complications with key differentiations. Powered by systems biology-guided disease characterization and target discovery with cutting edge computational technologies, EnnovaBio has built an innovative drug discovery and development pipeline. Currently, multiple projects including EnnovaBio’s proprietary first-in-class oral small-molecule therapy for diabetic macular edema (DME) have advanced into Phase II clinical development with promising therapeutic potential indicated.
Xellar Biosystems
Xellar Biosystems, founded in Boston, USA at the end of 2021, is the first biotech startup globally to integrate organ-on-a-chip technology with high-content 3D cellular imaging, computer vision, and artificial intelligence for drug discovery and precision medicine research, operating on a "3D-Wet-AI" platform. The founding team members primarily hail from renowned multinational pharmaceutical companies and top-tier research institutions, bringing extensive experience in industrial drug product development and cutting-edge biology and AI technology R&D. Xellar as an organ-on-a-chip company is currently working alongside the FDA and an alliance of multinational pharmaceutical companies to co-develop and establish the next-generation standards for preclinical drug efficacy evaluation based on organ-on-a-chip technology.
*The above company profiles are provided by the winning companies.
About Bayer
Bayer is a global company with core competencies in health and agriculture in the life sciences sector. The company is committed to helping people and the planet thrive through products and services that help people overcome the major challenges posed by a growing and aging global population. Bayer is committed to driving sustainability and making a positive impact on its business. At the same time, the Group is also improving profitability and creating value through technological innovation and business growth. Globally, the Bayer brand stands for trustworthiness, reliability and quality. In fiscal 2024, Bayer had approximately 93,000 employees and sales of 46.6 billion euros. R&D investment, excluding special projects, amounted to EUR 6.2 billion. See www.bayer.com for more information.
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