Viva Biotech Holdings (1873.HK) and Schrödinger, Inc. (Nasdaq: SDGR) today announced a strategic collaboration to expand the reach of structure-based drug discovery by generating de novo crystal structures of high-value targets.
Under the terms of the collaboration, Schrödinger will identify drug discovery targets for which there are currently no crystal structures in the public domain, including those that could lead to first-in-class therapeutic candidates for its internal pipeline. Viva Biotech will deploy X-ray crystallography designed to structurally enable these targets by generating high-resolution structures with bound ligands. Schrödinger will then leverage its advanced computational platform at scale to explore large portions of chemical space with the goal of designing novel therapeutic candidates for such targets.
"This collaboration brings together two leaders in the field of structure-based drug discovery," said Zhixiong Ye, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Viva Biotech. "Our expertise in x-ray crystallography and in other key related areas enables us to generate de novo structures for previously unsolved targets. Schrödinger's industry-leading platform enables broad and rapid exploration of chemical space. Together, we hope to create innovative therapeutics with the potential to benefit patients around the world."
"This is an exciting collaboration. We have identified numerous promising targets that are challenging to drug in part because they lack high-resolution crystal structures. Viva Biotech is widely recognized as a world leader in x-ray crystallography, and we believe they will be able to generate high-quality structures that are amenable to our physics-based predictive modeling," said Karen Akinsanya, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Chief Biomedical Scientist and Head of Discovery R&D at Schrödinger. "We hope this collaboration will lead to the discovery of therapeutic candidates that can be advanced into human trials in areas with critical unmet medical needs."
About Viva Biotech
Viva Biotech operates a leading structure-based, integrated drug discovery platform, providing drug discovery services to biotechnology and pharmaceutical customers worldwide. Viva Biotech actively combines conventional cash-for-service (CFS) and unique equity-for-service (EFS) approaches to realize a combination of short and long term innovation-driven returns. CFS covers the full spectrum of its customers' needs for early-stage drug discovery, including target protein expression and structure research, hit screening, lead optimization, and drug candidate determination. As of December 31st, 2019, Viva Biotech has served 438 pharmaceutical customers worldwide, worked on over 1,200 independent drug targets, delivered approximately over 13,700 protein structures, and incubated/invested 46 early-stage biotech startups. Visit www.vivabiotech.com for more information.
About Schrödinger
Schrödinger's industry-leading computational platform to accelerate drug discovery and materials design is deployed by leading biopharmaceutical and industrial companies, academic institutions, and government laboratories worldwide. In addition to this global business, Schrödinger is also applying its computational platform to a robust pipeline of drug discovery programs in collaboration with pharmaceutical companies and has co-founded leading biotech companies. In addition, Schrödinger is using its platform to advance a pipeline of internal, wholly-owned drug discovery programs. Schrödinger's significant and ongoing investment in basic research continues to drive advances in its computational platform. Founded in 1990, Schrödinger has over 400 employees in its New York City headquarters and around the world. Visit www.schrodinger.com for more information.
