China’s ChemLex unveils in Singapore an AI-powered drug discovery lab run by robots 

SINGAPORE – ChemLex, a Chinese chemical research start-up, has launched its global headquarters and its unique AI-powered, fully automated laboratory for drug discovery and development in Singapore’s innovation hub One-North.

Founded in 2022 in Shanghai, ChemLex uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to radically accelerate discovery of synthetic molecules for the pharmaceutical industry, significantly reducing time-to-market for drugs and medicines.

At the core of ChemLex’s lab is a 24/7 autonomous chemistry system that accelerates chemical discovery, making it far more cost-efficient and significantly more sustainable than traditional lab methods, said the company.

It merges AI, robotics and chemical engineering to create a self-driving lab that autonomously plans, performs and analyses scientific experiments, minimising manual labour and the odds of human error.

Driving this is an innovative AI-powered, fully automated synthesis line, which runs experiments autonomously, captures data in real time and transforms chemical discovery from a stop-start process into a smooth workflow.

Mr Sean Lin, founder and chief executive of ChemLex, said using an automated and intelligence platform significantly shortens the delivery cycle of the chemical synthesis process in the drug development cycle. It also reduces the costs associated with chemical synthesis, breaking free from the current high dependence on manual operations in medicinal chemistry synthesis.

“We are building an R&D (research and development) engine that compresses months of synthesis and optimisation into weeks or even days, transforming both the speed and certainty of discovery,” he said at a launch ceremony on Dec 5 at its chemical synthesis facility and global headquarters in Ayer Rajah Crescent.

“Singapore strengthens this effort and provides us with an ecosystem to scale rapidly and support partners globally who need this capability now,” he added.

Mr Jermaine Loy, the newly appointed managing director of Singapore’s lead investment promotion agency Economic Development Board, said ChemLex’s new facility – given its ability to advance drug discovery and development – is very much aligned with the Republic’s advanced manufacturing priorities.

He said Singapore, over the past two decades, has built up a biomedical science ecosystem, with many of the top global companies hosting here not just manufacturing but their R&D facilities as well. The pharmaceutical and medical technology sectors now employ more than 26,000 people and account for nearly 3 per cent of Singapore’s gross domestic product.

“Here in Singapore, we remain committed to driving this growth,’’ said Mr Loy.

For the next phase of public R&D research, Singapore will be prioritising development of AI in drug discovery capabilities, and will continue to fund research and innovation to develop this capability, together with global companies here that have been investing in AI, robotics and additive manufacturing for their operations, he noted.

“This is where ChemLex’s new facility fits right in,” Mr Loy said.

Since its inception three years ago, ChemLex has grown fast, supporting more than 70 customers worldwide, including six of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies. It has also raised about US$80 million (S$103.7 million), including US$45 million in the latest funding round led by Granite Asia, a Singapore-headquartered venture capital firm.

ChemLex said the new funding will support the hiring of more hardware and software engineers, as well as chemists in Singapore, enabling the company to serve a broader pipeline of pharmaceutical and materials science projects.

Mr Kuang Yinghui, partner at Granite Asia, said ChemLex is the type of deep-tech company that can reshape supply chains, shorten development timelines and unlock new economic value.

“AI-enabled chemistry is creating one of the most important industrial transitions of the decade, and ChemLex sits in that sweet spot, turning that shift into a business advantage with a platform that can accelerate molecule design and manufacturing at scale,” he said.

Other notable investors in the company include Qiming Venture Partners, LYFE Capital and Sinovation Ventures.

ChemLex has also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Experimental Drug Development Centre (EDDC), Singapore’s national platform for drug discovery and development. The collaboration seeks to accelerate next-generation small molecule drug discovery through advanced automation.

Professor Damian O’Connell, chief executive of the EDDC, said: “By combining EDDC’s drug development expertise with ChemLex’s automation and AI capabilities, we aim to shorten timelines, reduce costs, and deliver innovative treatments that improve lives in Singapore and globally.”

ChemLex has also been onboarded as a member of the Pharmaceutical Innovation Programme Singapore, or the PIPS consortium, where it joins leading biopharma companies in partnering local research institutes and universities to develop and implement new technologies for small molecule manufacturers.

Small molecule manufacturing refers to chemical synthesis and large-scale production of low-molecular-weight compounds that act as drugs.

The launch ceremony was also attended by Minister of State for Trade and Industry Gan Siow Huang and Ms Sharon Chan, vice-president of JLABS Asia Pacific, which provides access to pharma giant Johnson & Johnson’s expertise to early-stage companies.

Speaking at a separate media roundtable, Mr Lin said while ChemLex delivers the same category of chemical synthesis services offered by traditional contract research organisations, it does so through AI tools that not only speed up end-to-end synthesis workflows, but also predict and design smarter, greener synthesis routes. ChemLex’s AI-for-chemistry platform also suggests optimal reaction conditions automatically and reduces variability.

The firm’s autonomous high-throughput synthesis system managed by robotics enables more than 800 reactions every day, runs 24/7 operations with minimal human intervention, and delivers two to four times efficiency gains, replacing 90 per cent of manual work.

“Instead of slow, manual bench work and fragmented workflows, our platform runs continuous experiments, learns from every data point, and automates the entire synthesis cycle from design to purification.

“This removes bottlenecks, increases reproducibility and delivers a level of speed, scale and cost-efficiency that traditional labs cannot match,” Mr Lin said.

“We did the maths. For now, we can collect enough data in one day which is equivalent to about three years of work by a team of chemists at a conventional lab,” he added.

This means that chemists can now focus on more high-value analytical work, instead of tedious manual workflows that limit throughput, increase costs and produce inconsistent results.

Explaining why ChemLex chose Singapore as its global headquarters, Mr Lin said the Republic is globally well connected, with several Fortune 500 corporations having headquarters here as well. This will allow the firm to leverage the advantage of Singapore’s resourcefulness and customer connections, he said.

“We all know Singapore is a global biotech hub. Hence, it is also easier to find the types of multidisciplinary talent we are looking for,” he said.