AI empowers source innovation, designed for pulmonary delivery, CF PHARMTECH (02652) doubles down on the globally scarce novel-mechanism inhaled anti-inflammatory track.

Recently, CF PHARMTECH (02652) announced that the company has signed a research collaboration agreement with a technology enterprise founded by a team of scientists with relevant disciplinary backgrounds from a leading domestic university, focused on AI-assisted new drug discovery. The two parties will conduct early-stage research collaboration on inhaled innovative small molecule drugs for inflammatory pulmonary diseases, exploring the use of artificial intelligence technology for the design, screening, and optimization of new chemical entities (NCEs). Extremely Scarce Innovation Track: "Target Biology" + "Pulmonary Delivery Engineering" Combining CF PHARMTECH's core capabilities in pulmonary delivery, inhaled formulation development, and industrialization translation, the two parties will jointly advance the discovery of innovative drugs with inhaled administration potential. The research scope covers targets related to inflammatory pulmonary diseases, small molecule structure design, druggability prediction, pulmonary local exposure characteristics, inhaled administration compatibility, and subsequent pharmaceutical development feasibility. This collaboration aims to validate the technical feasibility of combining AI-assisted drug discovery with an inhaled formulation platform, and to reserve potential candidate molecules for the company's future innovative inhaled drug pipeline. AI + Inhaled Administration: "Designed for Pulmonary Delivery" Traditional small molecule innovative drug R&D involves long cycles, high costs, and strong uncertainty. AI-assisted drug discovery uses algorithmic models to efficiently predict molecular structures, target binding, drug activity, selective physicochemical properties, and druggability, helping R&D teams more quickly identify candidate molecular directions worth validating. For inhaled drugs, drug molecules must not only be "effective" but also suitable for pulmonary delivery. Inhaled small molecule drugs need to balance multiple factors including pulmonary local activity, intrapulmonary retention, airway or alveolar deposition, systemic exposure, safety window, formulation stability, and device compatibility. This collaboration introduces key constraints of inhaled administration from the early drug discovery stage, enabling potential candidate molecules to possess "designed for pulmonary delivery" characteristics at an earlier stage. CF PHARMTECH believes that this combination of "AI molecular design + pulmonary delivery platform" is expected to become an important new pathway for inhaled innovative drug R&D. Leveraging an AI-empowered innovative R&D system, CF PHARMTECH will focus on tackling novel-mechanism anti-inflammatory small molecules for inhaled inflammatory pulmonary diseases, concentrating on addressing clinical pain points of traditional drugs, and building a new generation of respiratory innovative drugs that combine high anti-inflammatory activity, low systemic side effects, and long-acting precise delivery, filling the global supply gap for high-end inhaled anti-inflammatory new drugs and providing safer, more efficient new treatment options for patients with airway inflammatory diseases. CF PHARMTECH management stated: "The key to inhaled drug development is not only finding an effective molecule, but delivering the right drug to the pulmonary lesion in the right way. Our accumulation over the past decade-plus in the complex inhaled formulation field is becoming an important foundation for entering the innovative inhaled drug field." "AI drug discovery is changing the way early-stage innovative drug R&D is conducted, but for inhaled drugs, AI design must be deeply integrated with pulmonary delivery principles, inhaled formulation engineering, and clinical translation. This collaboration hopes to introduce product thinking for inhaled administration from the early stage, making potential candidate molecules more aligned with future clinical and industrialization needs." "CF PHARMTECH will not simply treat AI as a concept, but as a tool to enhance innovative drug R&D efficiency and platform extensibility. The company will continue to use complex inhaled formulations as its industrial foundation, pulmonary precise delivery as its core capability, and innovative inhaled drugs as its long-term growth direction, striving to grow into a globally competitive inhaled systems platform company." This collaboration represents another forward-looking layout by CF PHARMTECH in the innovative inhaled drug field. The company believes that future competition in inhaled drugs will no longer be limited to a single product, but will be comprehensive competition in delivery systems, formulation engineering, molecular design, device technology, clinical translation, and global registration capabilities. Through collaboration with AI drug discovery enterprises, the company will further strengthen its capabilities in the early discovery phase of innovative inhaled drugs, driving the platform's upgrade from "being able to make drugs into inhaled formulations" to "being able to design innovative drugs more suitable for pulmonary delivery from the source." This collaboration is highly consistent with the company's medium-to-long-term strategy: while serving basic treatment needs through complex inhaled generic drugs, continuously laying out higher-value, higher-barrier innovative inhaled drugs to meet inadequately addressed clinical needs in the fields of chronic respiratory diseases and other serious pulmonary diseases.