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At Crelux, a WuXi AppTec company in Munich, innovation starts with access. Through strategic collaborations and state-of-the-art technology, Crelux enables start-ups and biotechs to test, validate, and adopt advanced early-stage drug-discovery tools before they invest – helping them go further with less capital and turn promising science into real-world impact. Since becoming part of WuXi AppTec, Crelux has broadened its capabilities and is now tightly integrated with the company’s global Contract Research, Development, and Manufacturing Organization (CRDMO) platform, enabling the development of innovative therapies.
From prototype to high-throughput
Among other early-stage drug-discovery platforms, Crelux has built comprehensive biophysical capabilities over the past decade, integrating technologies from partners such as NanoTemper. Today, teams can run high-throughput screens on systems capable of testing up to 100,000 compounds per day, alongside complementary methods, within a coordinated discovery setup. The result: reliable data on real targets, early.
Access to technology when Capex needs to be focused
Start-ups and academic spin-offs bring their own projects and run focused pilots with Crelux scientists. The model lowers barriers to adoption: evaluate fit, quantify benefit, then decide whether to continue with partnered work or invest in equipment later. It’s a capital-efficient on-ramp to state-of-the-art discovery technology for the whole ecosystem, from start-ups to global pharma.
Expertise that de-risks adoption
Method development and data interpretation take place on site with Crelux’s experienced hit-identification and profiling team. Their deep expertise in binding interactions and kinetics measurements ensures that assays are designed and fine-tuned to the target in hand, with conditions and instrument parameters optimised for a robust signal-to-noise ratio. This scientific understanding enables teams to fail fast and learn early, generating decision-grade data that guide projects in the right direction before major investments are made. The result is high-quality data, smooth technology transfer, and confident go/no-go decisions, all while remaining agile.
From pilot to scale-up
Once an assay is validated, Crelux offers founders a clear path forward. Through WuXi AppTec’s integrated global CRDMO network, which provides comprehensive services from early discovery to commercial manufacturing, programmes can scale seamlessly without rebuilding workflows or switching partners. This integrated model supports innovators from idea to product, enabling them to accelerate discovery, reduce risk, and bring new therapies to patients faster, fully aligned with WuXi AppTec’s mission to enable innovation globally and benefit patients worldwide.
A triple-win collaboration
The collaboration with NanoTemper is one example of many long-standing partnerships that Crelux has built with biotech innovators over the past 20 years. By connecting start-ups with breakthrough tools, Crelux strengthens its early-adopter role, gives innovators faster access to technology, and expands the reach of emerging platforms. ‘Through this collaboration, many customers gain faster access to new technology,’ says Dr. Thomas Meins, General Manager of WuXi AppTec’s subsidiary Crelux in Munich.
Why Munich matters
Bavaria’s life-science community, from Munich to Regensburg and Würzburg, thrives on collaboration between research, investors, and industry. Supported by regional initiatives such as Invest in Bavaria, Munich has become one of Europe’s leading innovation hubs for biotech and life sciences. By linking these actors and coupling pilot access with scalable development, Crelux helps bridge Europe’s ‘valley of death’ in early biotech innovation and turns scientific excellence into industrial impact.