China Economic Network, Beijing, May 9 (Reporter Wang Huimian) A few days ago, Huaxi Biology (688363.SH) released its 2023 annual report. The report shows that the company's revenue in 2023 was 6.076 billion billion yuan, of which the raw material business contributed significantly, achieving revenue of 1.129 billion billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.22 percent, demonstrating a strong growth momentum.

As a world-renowned biotechnology company and bioactive material company, Huaxi Bio takes raw material business as its development depth and core foundation. Its business network covers more than 70 countries and regions around the world, providing efficient and professional solutions and services for more than 4000 pharmaceutical, medical and aesthetic, cosmetic and food enterprises.

Over the years, Huaxi Bio has continuously promoted the progress of the industry by virtue of its global leading position in the industrialization of hyaluronic acid (HA) through microbial fermentation technology and enzyme digestion technology. In recent years, driven by synthetic biology, the company has successfully expanded its product line from a single HA to a more diversified field of bioactives, and the bioactives platform enterprise has been further formed.

R & D Investment Reaches New High Bioactive Platform Steadily Formed

in 2023, huaxi biological research and development investment reached 0.446 billion yuan, up 14.98 year on year, reaching a new high. During the reporting period, the company has applied for 908 patents (including 716 invention patents), of which 452 patents have been authorized. These innovations have not only built a strong technological moat for the company, but also injected new impetus into the independent innovation of the biotechnology industry.

Huaxi Bio attaches great importance to basic research and applied basic research, in the original microbial fermentation and cross-linking two core technology platform, the company has further built a pilot transformation platform, formulation process research and development platform, synthetic biology research and development platform, application mechanism research and development platform, including four independent research and development platform.

In recent years, bio-manufacturing (synthetic biology) has been regarded as a very important new track and new format for new quality productivity, and relevant policies have occurred frequently. In 2022, the National Development and Reform Commission issued the "14th Five-Year Plan for Bioeconomic Development" "Promote the innovation of synthetic biology technology. Since 2023, many places across the country have issued special policy documents for the high-quality development of the synthetic bio-industry to accelerate the industrialization of bio-manufacturing. Recently, Tan Tianwei, president of Beijing University of Chemical Technology and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated at the Zhongguancun Forum annual meeting that the bioeconomy is expected to become the fourth industrial revolution in the future after the agricultural revolution, industrial revolution, and digital revolution.

huaxi biology began to lay out in the field of synthetic biology as early as 2018, and will rise synthetic biology to the company's strategic level from 2022 onwards. Huaxi Biology originally produced hyaluronic acid and other substances through microbial fermentation. The process is to first select specific strains that exist in nature, provide them with fermentation substrates such as glucose and peptone, and then at a suitable temperature and PH value. Obtain the fermentation product. Synthetic biology is to modify and edit the genes of existing strains, so that they can produce different substances or produce substances more efficiently, so as to realize the production of more innovative substances, greatly improve efficiency, reduce costs and increase efficiency.

The technological upgrade brought about by synthetic biology has led to an increase in the efficiency of Huaxi's main business segments. In the production of hyaluronic acid, 16-17g hyaluronic acid can be extracted per liter of fermentation liquid by microbial fermentation method (the second generation of microbial fermentation technology); 73g hyaluronic acid can be extracted per liter of fermentation liquid by synthetic biotechnology (the third generation of microbial fermentation technology), which is more than 4 times of the original.

In the development of new raw materials, Huaxi Bio relies on synthetic biotechnology, in the functional sugars, proteins, peptides, amino acids, nucleotides, natural active compounds and other six categories of bioactive areas of continuous results, the bioactive matrix continues to expand.

during the reporting period, using six major research and development platforms, the company listed a total of 9 new bioactive raw materials: among them, 3 pharmaceutical/medical device grade raw materials are Hyature @ sodium hyaluronate MD II-L, Hyature @ sodium hyaluronate MD II-R, and Bloomcolla "COL3-MD recombinant type iii humanized collagen (medical device grade);4 personal care raw material products, they are Hybloom" micro-true, Bioyouth "-EGT Pure ultra-pure ergothioneine, Bloomcolla" Colchuan recombinant type III collagen, and Bloomsurfact "EncapCare Rp retinol propionate lipopeptide nanoemulsion. Two food-grade raw materials are UltraHA

-CWS Instant Sodium Hyaluronate and Gabarelax @-UP Upgrade y-Amino Industrial Acid.

In addition, the micro-crosslinked hyaluronic acid powder product HvacrossTL200, cationic HA, enzymatic sialic acid, poly oligonucleotide, GABA fabric finishing agent, Cordyceps militaris fermentation liquid, probiotic combination fermentation product, etc. have been completed for trial production. Salidroside, carnosine, human milk oligosaccharides to complete the pilot. The company's sterile grade HA production line has completed trial production, adding medical device grade Hyatrue for repair and lubrication products

Sodium hyaluronate is expected to further consolidate the company's leading position in the high-end HA market.

The richness of the product line has led to an increase in market competitiveness. During the reporting period, zinc hyaluronate, nano HA, micro-true, oil-dispersed sodium hyaluronate, acetyl chitosan amine, gamma-aminobutyric acid and other products achieved significant growth. February 2023, Hybloom

Zinc Hyaluronate (HA-Zn) and Hyanutra

-RH Runzhi Mi Language won the PCHi2023 "Fang Dian Award" for Shu Min, acne removal and hair and scalp care respectively ". The rich product matrix represents the further formation of bioactive platform enterprises.

"from 0 to 1, from 1 to 10" synthetic biology market has great potential

Huaxi Biology always adheres to the enterprise development logic of "science → technology → product → brand. Zhao Yan, chairman and president of Huaxi Biology, once said that science is to do from 0 to 1, and technology should be from 1 to 10, 10 to 100. With the support of science and technology, we can create good products and build our own brand.

At present, synthetic biotechnology mainly relies on microbial metabolic pathways to build and empower fermentation technology. This requires not only a deep understanding of the habits of different microorganisms, but also precise control of the details. Huaxi Bio is the first domestic enterprise to produce hyaluronic acid through microbial fermentation and scale it. It has rich industrialization experience in the field of fermentation.

At the same time, the "pilot test" link is indispensable for the real transformation of technological research and development results into productivity. Pilot test is the abbreviation of intermediate test, which is the key link of transforming scientific and technological achievements into productivity. In the process of pilot, it can solve the problems that can not be solved or found in the experiment, including equipment adaptability, process research and development, safety, environmental protection, yield, cost and so on. Industrial scale-up of synthetic organisms from 1-10-100 can only be accomplished through a "pilot test.

in the process of promoting the synthetic biology strategy, huaxi biology has completed the layout of all key links from the establishment of innovation base and research team, the core construction of platform, the research and development cooperation of industry-university-research consortium to the commissioning of the world's largest pilot transformation platform. it has completed all the links of platform-talent-technology-transformation required by synthetic biology, and can realize the rapid industrialization of laboratory results.

Huaxi Biology has also actively deepened industry-university-research cooperation, established cooperative relations with authoritative institutions such as the Ministry of Science and Technology, Tianjin Municipal People's Government, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shandong University, Jiangnan University and other universities, and participated in the joint construction of the National Synthetic Biotechnology Innovation Center and the National Bio-manufacturing Industry Innovation Center. During the reporting period, the company carried out more than 70 cooperation projects and made important breakthroughs in synthetic biology and other aspects. These cooperation not only provides strong technical support and talent guarantee for the company, but also opens up a broader space for the company's future development.

According to the "China Synthetic Bio Industry White Paper 2024", it is expected that in the next few years, the global synthetic biology market will continue to maintain its growth momentum, reaching a scale of nearly US $50 billion in 2028. Looking forward to the future, Huaxi Biology will continue to adhere to the development concept of "science, technology, products and brands" and take synthetic biology as the engine to promote the company to a higher level and a wider field.