Prime Highlights
- ChemLex launched its global headquarters and a 24/7 AI-powered robotic drug discovery lab in Singapore’s One-North innovation district.
- The company aims to drastically speed up drug development by compressing months of chemical synthesis into weeks or even days.
Key Facts
- ChemLex supports over 70 clients worldwide, including six of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies, and has raised about US$80 million.
- Its automated platform can run more than 800 reactions a day, delivering 2–4x higher efficiency than traditional manual synthesis.
Background
ChemLex, a chemical research start-up, has opened its global headquarters and an AI-powered robotic drug discovery lab in Singapore’s One-North innovation district. The company aims to speed up drug development using a fully automated system that runs chemical experiments round the clock.
ChemLex, started in 2022 in Shanghai, uses AI and machine learning to find new synthetic molecules faster for the pharmaceutical industry. Its new lab runs a 24/7 autonomous chemistry system that plans, performs, and analyzes experiments with very little human involvement. The company said this approach reduces errors, lowers costs, and delivers results far faster than traditional lab methods.
At the launch, founder and chief executive Sean Lin said ChemLex’s technology can compress months of chemical synthesis into weeks or even days. He added that Singapore provides the right ecosystem to scale globally, due to its strong biomedical sector and talent pool.
Singapore’s Economic Development Board managing director Jermaine Loy said the facility fits well with the country’s advanced manufacturing priorities. He noted that Singapore’s biomedical sector now employs more than 26,000 people and contributes nearly 3 per cent to GDP.
ChemLex has grown rapidly, supporting more than 70 clients worldwide, including six of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies. It has raised about US$80 million so far, with recent funding led by Singapore-based Granite Asia. The company intends to expand its team of engineers and chemists to support larger-scale R&D initiatives.
ChemLex also signed a memorandum of understanding with the Experimental Drug Development Centre to jointly speed up small-molecule drug discovery. Its AI-driven system can run over 800 reactions daily, achieving two to four times higher efficiency while replacing most manual tasks.
Company leaders say this high-speed, automated workflow allows chemists to focus on complex analysis while the platform handles routine synthesis at scale.
