SHANGHAI, March 27, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Dr. Guojun Lang, founder and CEO of Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals provides industry insights:
The new era sees the transition towards digitalization and intelligence. Following this trend, we have been thinking and planning the transformative path of digitalization and intelligence as well. What was once impossible has gradually become reality—future R&D services will be built upon a vast platform, smoothly enabling automated project reporting, ordering, and end-to-end online visualization.
Traditional service workflows are intricate and involve efforts and coordination from multiple teams: front-end BD manager, project manager/lead and project execution/delivery team, and the execution team further consists of managers and scientists. The effective communication and coordination among these multiple layers can be very challenging.
The advent of the digitalization era brings new opportunities. A powerful digital platform emerges, featuring a user-friendly interface at the front end and an intelligent and automated system operating at the back end. It can swiftly handle these intricate tasks, eliminating gaps and streamlining processes. This is the driving force behind Sanyou’s development of an intelligence-enabled innovative biologics R&D platform.
Seamless Integration of Digitalization, Computation and Automation
The most remarkable advantage of this system lies in its integration of three key elements: digitalization, computation and automation. It has given rise to an intelligent R&D platform specifically tailored for innovative biologics R&D. In the digitalization process, each operation is precisely transformed into a piece of code. Therefore, for instance, a set of workflow operations can be encoded into lines of codes as well. Each time by running this code, the system can automatically execute the entire process. This enables all operations to be digitized, with the system being a big data platform.
Once digitalization is complete, the importance of computation becomes evident on the data platform. For example, when generating a document, intricate computational logic is involved. The system needs to accurately retrieve necessary data from the database and transform it into a visual interface. Additionally, many cumbersome tasks, if entirely reliant on manual operations, would be inherently inefficient. Therefore, automated computation stands out as a major highlight of this system and one of its unique advantages.
The core of intelligent innovation in biopharmaceuticals lies in the integration of digitalization, computation, and automation. This system finds extensive applications across various domains, including research and development, data management, project management, quality control, and marketing.
Dr. Guojun Lang, founder and CEO of Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals, said that they currently have ten major systems, and these will continue to be integrated and optimized to better serve the research and development of innovative biological drugs.
Unique Advantage Brought by System Integration
The unique advantage brought by system and data integration is quite evident. Some users have previously used software tools from other suppliers. While these tools meet certain user needs, there is a common problem of fragmentation. Each module operates like an isolated island, lacking effective connections and integration. For instance, the finance department might use one software while the logistics management department uses a completely different software, resulting in data and information flow obstacles.
Dr. Guojun Lang believes that to address this issue, these tools must be integrated on a single platform. Traditional management tools, although with certain management functions, still fall short of true digitalization. In contrast, the advantage of Sanyou’s system lies in its ability to integrate various systems on one interface, enabling information sharing. Simultaneously, by reducing manual intervention, it enhances work efficiency and user experience. For example, clients can view project progress online real-time, no longer relying on extra communication with Sanyou’s project team. Likewise, project team can focus on completing experiments and updating data, reducing on-call communication with clients. These advantages enhance work efficiency and user experience at the same time.
In addition to being user-friendly and intuitive, this system primarily serves pharmaceutical companies, offering numerous conveniences during the new drug application process as well as early-stage research. The system offers traceability, meaning that any data digitized can be traced back to its source. Through system records, the time and personnel of the data uploading can be precisely determined, ensuring authenticity and accuracy.
Data traceability is crucial in the drug development process. This system, based on digital recording, ensures that experimental data cannot be revoked or altered after uploading to the system, thus safeguarding intellectual property rights in drug development. Additionally, the system supports transforming data into documents and printing them for archiving, meeting various requirements.
Overall, this system provides substantial advantages in later stages of drug development process. For instance, in drug development cycles spanning up to ten years, traditional methods often face challenges due to frequent personnel changes which makes it difficult to trace application materials. However, this system connects all data through a key identifier of project number, allowing easy access to relevant data and personnel information even after a decade. It provides robust support for the compliance of new drug development, achieving greater transparency and visualization in management.
Transition of Business Models and Improvement of Efficiency
The introduction of an integrated digital platform has brought profound impact, making Sanyou a pioneer in the industry’s digital transition.
Previously, Sanyou primarily provided antibody reagents and various types of project service to the pharmaceutical R&D clients. The newly launched system will bring significant changes to Sanyou’s business model. In the past, their business mainly followed B2B logic, requiring face-to-face communication with customers to expand their business. Now, with both customers and the company using the platform, the business logic has shifted to a B2C model. When new products are launched, corresponding modules will be set up on the digital platform, allowing all users to automatically access relevant information. This has led to a qualitative leap in terms of direct and effective communication.
From a customer perspective, they have clearly felt an increase in efficiency and improved user experience. For instance, in terms of report generation, in the past it might take two to three months to complete a whole project report. Now with the application of digital technology, reports can be generated immediately after experiments are completed. Since the reports are digitized, with the collection of the experimental data, the final report can be generated with a single click, eliminating intermediate steps and significantly accelerating customer project progress.
Additionally, this platform provides added value. For example, data storage challenges have been effectively addressed. Previously, clients needed to receive data via email, which was difficult to search through. Now, all project data is stored on the platform, allowing convenient access to project reports and plans. Furthermore, different historical versions of these reports and plans can be saved, greatly enhancing work efficiency.
Ten Major Systems of the Integrated Platform
So, what exactly does Sanyou’s integrated platform include?
As mentioned earlier, it encompasses ten major systems covering customer project management, sample management, internal project management, industrial and academic customer map, report automation, sequence analysis, primer design, experiment data processing, drug development and predictive drug developability modeling.
Customer Project Management System: This system allows customers to view their project progress information and download project deliverables. It also provides contact information for the project lead during each stage, enhancing the customer’s experience throughout the project.
Sample Management System: Developed as an emergency migration due to the original system supplier going offline, this system includes modules for sample queries, sample storage and retrieval, inventory locations, and sample analysis data. It supports the work of the sample management team.
Internal Project Management System: Aimed at improving project management in the biopharmaceutical industry, this system includes features such as contract management, project management, milestone tracking, and data reporting. It ensures product quality, meets customer requirements, and optimizes resource allocation and delivery efficiency.
Industrial and Academic Customer Map: Designed to better manage potential customers in the industrial and scientific research fields, this system contains modules for financing and CDE/FDA news (industrial customer map), and information about global core customers (academic customer map), making it convenient for screening and searching.
Report Automation: Addresses report delivery efficiency. It is divided into two stages- database construction and report automation development, in order to achieve task management, experiment management, and report management. It significantly improves the efficiency of report generation and management.
Sequence Analysis Program: Developed to enhance efficiency and accuracy in sequence analysis for bioinformatics research and biopharmaceuticals. It covers automatic analysis of full-length antibody and nanobody sequences, including sequence alignment, diversity analysis, modification sites, and isoelectric point analysis.
Primer Design Program: Enhances design efficiency and accuracy by automation of primer design, trimming, PTM avoidance, developability primer calculation, and isoelectric point analysis. The system ensures precise experimental design by predicting and avoiding PTMs, calculating primer occupancy, and optimizing experimental accuracy. It provides strong support for molecular biology and gene engineering experiments.
Experimental Data Processing System: Includes features such as clone selection numbering, data processing, protein identifier matching, EC50 calculation, and assay result analysis. The system automatically selects clones, converts data into charts, matches protein identifiers, and supports experimental design and analysis. Additionally, it comprehensively analyzes ELISA results and provides standard curve quantification. This system enhances data processing and analysis efficiency, supporting biomedical research.
Drug Development System: Utilizes advanced technology and automation methods to accelerate drug R&D and improve scientific research efficiency. It covers codon optimization, antibody humanization, clone selection, batch codon optimization, platform processes, sequence and plasmid information collection. By automating codon optimization, improving protein expression, achieving antibody humanization and clone selection, and streamlining project handover and information integration, the system significantly enhances drug R&D accuracy and efficiency, providing robust support.
Predictive Drug Developability Modeling System: Based on AI technology, this system includes prediction models for antibody affinity maturation. It improves antibody affinity prediction accuracy through data-driven learning and integrates data from multiple sources to support comprehensive research. By optimizing drug development processes and supporting intelligence-enabled decision-making, it comprehensively enhances R&D efficiency and accuracy, potentially playing a critical role in drug development.
AI-enabled Biological Drug Development
The integrated system’s automation is empowered by artificial intelligence.
In drug development, the modeling and prediction of drug developability analysis aims to comprehensively enhance the efficiency of the drug development process. To achieve this, Sanyou has built an innovative system specifically designed for analyzing and predicting antibody affinity, leveraging advanced AI technology. This system not only integrates cutting-edge AI algorithms but also establishes models based on extensive experimental data, significantly improving the accuracy of antibody affinity predictions.
Furthermore, to precisely understand antibody characteristics, the system has also developed an affinity maturation prediction model. This model rapidly and accurately predicts the maturity of antibody affinity, providing valuable insights for researchers. To further enhance the reliability of prediction results, the model has been optimized by advanced algorithms and techniques in the field.
To better support comprehensive research in drug development, the system offers a comprehensive research framework for modeling and predicting drug analysis. This framework covers critical factors such as affinity and drug efficacy, integrating data from various channels to provide researchers with comprehensive information.
Through this modeling system, the entire drug development process experiences significant optimization in terms of both efficiency and accuracy. Most importantly, the system provides intelligence-enabled decision-making for R&D teams, enabling them to make better decisions at an early stage. It will play a crucial role in advancing drug development and achieving greater progress in the pharmaceutical field.
User-friendly Design and Features
Although the integrated system boasts a wide range of functionalities, it remains remarkably straightforward in terms of user interface. Its advantage lies in the integration of the ten major systems to a unified interface. In the past, R&D personnel had to log in to multiple different software applications. Now, they only need to log into this unified system to effortlessly complete all tasks. Additionally, the system exhibits excellent iterability—software or application upgrades can be performed instantly within the system, and users can access the latest versions upon login, requiring minimal additional training.
Regarding customer experience, Sanyou prioritizes human-centric interface design to ensure users have a positive experience. The transition process is efficient and prompt, and feedback from clients is positive. For instance, previously, clients might need to visit the company in-person to access certain experimental records. Now, through the digital system, clients can conveniently view experiment records, results, and reports online, significantly reducing communication complexities.
In terms of financial operations, the system also has excellent performance. Sales data from the front end is seamlessly transmitted to the finance end, forming a closed loop and enhancing work efficiency. This achievement stems from our initial design concept: constructing a comprehensive platform where users only need to log in once using a single user account to address all their needs.
To meet user requirements, Sanyou meticulously designed the system and provided practical recommendations. For example, in the sample management system, optimizing inventory location modules for efficient and accurate sample storage and retrieval was crucial. Sanyou’s data science team, led by Dr. Yu, manages sample inventory by categorizing it into temporary warehouse, product warehouse, and non-product warehouse. Each warehouse is planned based on sample characteristics (such as size, shape, and storage conditions), and used clear labeling and easily recognizable tags or identifiers to facilitate optimal sample management. A comprehensive inventory database records has been established, with detailed sample information such as name, specifications, quantity, and storage location, enabling real-time updates and queries.
The meticulously crafted industrial and academic customer map continuously updates the latest marketing data while maintaining data accuracy and completeness. Dr. Yu suggests that industrial map fully utilizes internet resources and automation methods. Based on daily updates regarding global industry customer financing progress, CDE acceptance information, and FDA approvals, users can stay informed about global industry customer dynamics. Additionally, weekly manual reviews ensure the accuracy and completeness of the data. For academic map, Dr. Yu recommends leveraging online publication databases to periodically obtain literature related to the target clients and extract customer data. Manual verification ensures data accuracy and completeness for key customers.
When using the system’s built-in sequence analysis program, achieving high-speed and accurate sequence alignment is crucial when dealing with large-scale data. To address this, Sanyou implemented the following optimizations:
1. Optimization for Alignment:
Optimized the program in aspects including local and global sequence alignment, similarity region identification and whole sequence comparison to enhance alignment speed and accuracy.
2. Data Storage and Query:
Stored well-aligned data examples and established indexes, to reduce subsequent alignment time. When re-aligning the same sequence, directly query the database can be done without redoing the alignment.
3. Hardware Accelerators and Parallel Computing:
Utilized hardware accelerators or parallel computing techniques (such as multi-threading and parallel processing of multiple subtasks) to improve alignment speed. Parallel computing divides tasks into multiple subtasks, processing them simultaneously to fully utilize computational resources and enhance efficiency.
Digitalization is essential for enterprises to maintain competitiveness in the digital age. Sanyou’s digital platform streamlines processes, enhances efficiency and productivity, improves customer experience, and enables data-driven decision-making. This transition also strengthens the enterprise’s adaptability to market changes, provides a competitive advantage, and expands global business reach. While initial investments may be substantial, digitalization yields long-term cost savings. Additionally, it reinforces cybersecurity, improves employee engagement and talent recruiting, positioning enterprises to lead in the digital era and better meet customer needs.
About Sanyou Bio
Sanyou Biopharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. is a world-leading high-tech biotechnology enterprise focusing on R&D and services of innovative biologic drugs. Sanyou has built the 4C business patterns that integrate “differentiated CRO, integrated CDO, innovative CPO and characteristic CRS”, to accomplish the mission “to make the R&D easy for innovative biologics”.
Sanyou has established an integrated innovative biologic drug R&D laboratory with advanced facilities, and has a professional team with the majority holding a Ph.D. or master degree. Sanyou has built three industry-leading innovative technology platforms featured by “super-trillion, integration, and intelligence” , which are comprised of more than 50 sub-platforms with the core innovative super-trillion phage display platform, and supported by platforms of material preparation, biologics discovery, molecule optimization, in vitro and in vivo efficacy, production cell line construction, upstream and downstream process development, preclinical R&D, industrialization development, etc.
Sanyou’s business network has expanded to all parts of the world, including Asia, US and Europe, and established branches in Boston, Philadelphia, San Diego and London. Sanyou has established friendly business relationships with more than 1000 pharmaceutical companies, drug R&D institutions and diagnostics companies worldwide. Sanyou received National-level certification as a high-tech enterprise and a Specialized and Sophisticated enterprise, and passed the ISO9001 quality assurance certification and GB/T intellectual property management system certification.
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