Angel Yeast Subsidiary Plans to Invest 370 Million Yuan in New Synthetic Biology Pilot Verification Base

Cathay Biotech disclosed its 2026 semi-annual report. In the first half, it achieved operating revenue of 1.9 billion yuan, up 13.73% year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 372 million yuan, up 20.75% year on year. The profit growth was mainly driven by continued volume expansion of long-chain dibasic acids and revenue contribution from new product sales. During the reporting period, bio-based sebacic acid and bio-based piperidine continued to be introduced to the market, bio-based azelaic acid entered the customer sampling stage, and long-chain polyamide modified products achieved large-scale sales. The company also led an investment in and increased its stake in the AI protein design company MoleculeMind, and currently holds about 17.43% of its shares, making it the largest external shareholder. At the same time, its self-built high-throughput research and development platform has entered the commissioning stage.

China Resources Double-Crane plans to acquire a 23.5 percent stake in Lier Chemical for approximately 5.656 billion yuan in cash. After the transaction, Lier Chemical's controlling shareholder will change to China Resources Double-Crane, and the actual controller will change from the China Academy of Engineering Physics to China Resources Company Limited. The share transfer price is 30.07 yuan per share, about 138 percent higher than the previously publicly solicited floor price of 12.62 yuan per share, and also about 104 percent higher than Lier Chemical's closing price of 14.71 yuan on July 29. China Resources Double-Crane plans to introduce some of its synthetic biology reserve technologies and products into Lier Chemical, leveraging its fine chemical production capabilities to accelerate industrial implementation. In the first quarter of 2026, Lier Chemical achieved operating revenue of 2.312 billion yuan, up 10.85 percent year-on-year, but net profit attributable to the parent company was 115 million yuan, down 24.82 percent year-on-year. China Resources Double-Crane cautioned that there are differences between the two parties in main business, operating models, and corporate culture, and there remains uncertainty as to whether industrial synergy can be smoothly translated into operating performance.

Twig Bio has launched Hazel, an AI-driven research intelligence platform designed to evaluate biomanufacturing candidates and market feasibility in minutes rather than weeks. The platform offers two report types—Perspective Reports covering market dynamics, SWOT analysis, literature reviews, and IP landscapes, and Biofeasibility Reports assessing biochemical pathways, host strains, yield benchmarks, and scale-up strategies—at approximately $30 per report, a fraction of traditional market research costs. Hazel normalizes unstructured biological and market data into verifiable, standardized insights, providing side-by-side industrial benchmarking and simultaneous technical and commercial de-risking. Chief Scientific Officer James Allen said the platform unifies previously siloed scientific and market evaluations, while Chief Technology Officer Satnam Surae highlighted its scalable architecture optimized for speed and cost-efficiency. Hazel is now publicly available at askhazel.bio.