Canchen Tech raises tens of millions to build AI ‘virtual organs’ for drug testing

Canchen Tech (CANCHEN TECH) has closed a seed-to-angel series of rounds worth tens of millions of yuan, with investors including Orient Securities Capital, SongHe Capital, Tsinghua-based funds and TusStar, the company told Leiphone.

It is building a system-level virtual-organ simulation platform — digital twins spanning molecule, cell, tissue and organ — to replace parts of traditional animal testing in preclinical drug evaluation and early disease screening.

The timing is regulatory. In July 2026 China’s CDE published a draft ‘Pioneer Plan’ that, for the first time, admits AI virtual-organ digital twins into the statutory non-clinical evidence system for drugs. The FDA, EMA and the UK’s MHRA had already greenlit similar paths.

Canchen’s edge, investors say, is a closed loop linking simulation, wet-lab experiments and clinical front-validation, not just theory. Its architecture runs three layers: a multi-omics life foundation model, organ twins (brain, gut, liver), and whole-lifecycle multi-organ reasoning. The team published embryo full-cycle 3D dynamic models in Cell.

Partnerships already span a Southwest national compute centre, BGI’s Sanya institute, and top-tier hospitals for clinical validation of neonatal disease screening. The window is open; the race now is who turns the algorithm into a standard product pharma will trust.

AI virtual organ simulation
Canchen Tech builds full-scale virtual-organ digital twins for preclinical testing. (Source: Leiphone)

Original report: Leiphone.

Translated and adapted from Leiphone (leiphone.com).

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