ShanghaiMay 26, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Insilico Medicine (03696.HK), a clinical-stage biotechnology company driven by generative artificial intelligence (AI), and Wuxi Yituo Pharmaceutical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Yituo Pharmaceutical”), a company specializing in core protein liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) technology and leading the innovation of dermatological drugs, have signed an expanded strategic cooperation agreement. Building on the phased delivery of collaborative research on small molecule drug candidates for targeted protein degradation in oncology, the two parties will further expand the therapeutic indications of their cooperation, focusing on AI-empowered skin management and skin anti-aging innovative drug development. Leveraging AI-driven biology platforms and LLPS-specific R&D platforms, they aim to accelerate the transition of original small molecule drugs for scientific skincare and skin anti-aging from basic research to clinical application and industrial implementation.
Insilico Medicine and Yituo Pharmaceutical deepen strategic cooperation, leveraging AI-driven biology platforms and LLPS-specific R&D platforms to accelerate the transition of original small molecule drugs for scientific skincare and skin anti-aging from basic research to clinical application and industrial implementation.
Currently, the global skin management and anti-aging market is experiencing rapid growth. According to the latest research from Fortune Business Insights, the global skincare market size reached $122.11 billion in 2025 and is projected to exceed $227.13 billion by 2034. However, beneath the prosperity of rapid market expansion, significant unmet clinical needs remain prominent: most commercially available products are limited to ingredient compounding and superficial repair, leaving a substantial gap for innovative drugs that can intervene in the aging process at the cellular and molecular levels while offering both high efficacy and high safety.
This is partly because skin aging is a complex biological process co-regulated by multiple pathways and factors, accompanied by degenerative changes such as collagen loss, impaired barrier function, and inflammatory aging. Its biological mechanisms are not yet fully elucidated, significantly increasing the challenge of precisely developing targeted drugs. On the other hand, many known targets related to aging regulation are classified as “undruggable,” and traditional drug discovery methods suffer from low efficiency and high costs in candidate compound screening and druggability assessment, thereby constraining the R&D process for high-quality innovative drugs.
In recent years, global leaders in skin management and anti-aging have been embracing cutting-edge technologies to overcome the key bottlenecks of this hundred-billion-dollar market. In early 2026, Shiseido launched a new skincare line generated by its VOYAGER R&D platform’s AI algorithm, achieving precise ingredient matching through deep learning of over 500,000 formulation data points. In March, Beiersdorf established a €100 million innovation fund, fully betting on AI biological cell simulation technology to accelerate anti-aging ingredient screening. L’Oréal deepened its AI R&D collaboration with synthetic biology giant Ginkgo Bioworks to reverse-engineer high-efficacy bioactive compounds.
Against this backdrop, the expanded cooperation between Insilico Medicine and Yituo Pharmaceutical will integrate their respective cutting-edge technological advantages to create a new R&D model of synergistic innovation: an “AI-empowered biology + LLPS small molecule drug discovery platform.” Specifically, Insilico Medicine will utilize PandaOmics to identify and screen novel targets and biomarkers related to skin aging, and leverage the cross-species, multimodal, and multi-omics virtual data generation capabilities of the PreciousGPT series to empower aging process research. Yituo Pharmaceutical, with its independently built LLPS drug discovery platform and years of experience in drug R&D, will apply its comprehensive capabilities in target validation, pharmacological experiments, efficacy evaluation, and preclinical development to collaboratively advance the design, screening, and development of skin anti-aging drugs.
Regarding this strategic cooperation, the two parties have established three core directions to build an integrated collaborative R&D system: In terms of underlying technology, they will jointly build an LLPS AI algorithm prediction and image recognition system to accelerate scientific research from the tool end. Secondly, in mechanism exploration, relying on Insilico Medicine’s PandaOmics, which contains vast skin data, and its large model Precious3GPT, combined with Yituo Pharmaceutical’s professional expertise in skin aging biological mechanism research, they will jointly conduct in-depth exploration of biological mechanisms related to skin aging processes and target discovery, systematically analyzing the core regulatory network of skin aging onset. Finally, in translational implementation, combining Yituo Pharmaceutical’s preclinical wet-lab and translational medicine experience in topical dermatological drugs, they will jointly advance the development of innovative small molecule drugs in the skin field with new mechanisms and new targets, rapidly producing candidate drug molecules with high efficacy and high safety.
Dr. Feng Ren, Co-CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of Insilico Medicine, stated: “In our previous oncology project collaboration, Insilico Medicine and Yituo Pharmaceutical established an efficient and stable synergistic mechanism. In this expanded cooperation, Insilico Medicine will leverage the massive dermatological multi-omics data accumulated on the PandaOmics platform, combined with the virtual data generation capabilities of Precious3GPT, to explore key biomarkers and potential targets driving degenerative changes such as inflammatory aging and barrier damage. At the same time, integrating Yituo’s underlying validation capabilities in the LLPS phase separation platform and their mature experience in translational medicine for topical drugs, both parties will deeply empower skin aging mechanism research and innovative drug discovery with the rigorous processes and objective indicator systems of innovative drug R&D, accelerating the preclinical development and industrial transformation of breakthrough therapies in related fields.”
Dr. Jidong Zhu, Co-founder and CEO of Yituo Pharmaceutical, stated: “The company has long focused on the R&D of small molecule drugs for undruggable targets, accumulating solid technical expertise and a mature R&D system in the field of skin anti-aging and health management. Our core scar repair product has entered the clinical validation stage, and several skin health products will successively enter clinical trials next year. The company has always adhered to a rigorous medical philosophy in laying out the consumer medical track, precisely matching the public’s high-quality skin health needs. This deep strategic cooperation with Insilico Medicine achieves a deep integration of cutting-edge biomedical technology and intelligent digital technology, leveraging AI technology to fill the gaps in traditional R&D, fully activating the R&D potential of the LLPS technology platform and improving the efficiency of innovative drug R&D. In the future, the two parties will complement each other’s advantages and work synergistically, deeply cultivating the innovative medical track of skin health, driving industrial innovation through technological integration, focusing on clinical needs to continuously develop high-quality original drugs, and contributing to the high-quality innovative development of China’s skin health industry.”
About Insilico Medicine
Insilico Medicine is a global pioneer biotechnology company dedicated to integrating artificial intelligence and automation technologies to accelerate drug discovery and drive innovation in the life sciences, empowering people to live longer, healthier lives. On December 30, 2025, the company was listed on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under the stock code 03696.HK.
Using its proprietary Pharma.AI platform and advanced automated biology laboratories, Insilico Medicine is providing innovative drug solutions for unmet disease areas such as fibrosis, oncology, immunology, pain, obesity, and metabolic disorders. Additionally, Insilico Medicine continues to expand the application of Pharma.AI into diverse fields, including advanced materials, agriculture, nutritional products, and veterinary medicine. For more information, please visit www.insilico.com.
About Yituo Pharmaceutical
Yituo Pharmaceutical is a biotechnology company with a core technology platform centered on protein liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS), engaged in globally innovative small molecule drug development in multiple disease and health areas, including anti-aging. Founded in 2019, the company was co-founded by Professor Yuan Yingying, a dual academician of the US National Academies and Foreign Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Professor Zhu Jidong, a “Hundred Talents Program” researcher of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. It has received investments from multiple top-tier investment institutions and has established R&D collaborations with several multinational pharmaceutical companies, including Roche.
The company has independently built an industry-leading, globally competitive LLPS small molecule drug discovery platform, establishing core technological barriers in areas such as skin and hair health management and anti-aging, and developing innovative drugs to address broad unmet clinical needs. The core pipeline, ETD-001, a first-in-class targeted therapeutic drug for pathological scarring, has entered the clinical research stage. Multiple skin anti-aging and health pipelines will successively enter clinical research, providing new health management strategies for areas such as hair growth and collagen regeneration.