Takeda Pharmaceutical and Schrödinger, a privately held company dedicated to revolutionizing drug discovery through advanced computational methods, announced the formation of a multi-target research collaboration directed to diseases that align with Takeda’s core therapeutic areas of interest. The unique collaboration will combine Schrödinger’s in silico platform-driven drug discovery capabilities with Takeda’s deep therapeutic area knowledge and expertise in structural biology. With a focus on simplicity, speed and agility, Schrödinger will lead the multi-target discovery effort with Takeda providing protein crystal structures to aid Schrödinger in using its computational platform to guide the design of new chemical entities. Schrödinger will be responsible for its discovery costs.

“Schrödinger’s agility, drug discovery track record and revolutionary computational chemistry platform are key strengths that attracted Takeda to Schrödinger as a strategic partner,” said Stephen Hitchcock, Ph.D., head of Research for Takeda. “Takeda’s business model is focused on creating mutually beneficial partnerships that capitalize on the complementary capabilities of both parties in order to accelerate the discovery of new therapies for patients. In this case, Schrödinger is taking the lead role in discovery, with Takeda playing a supporting role, leveraging its in-house structural biology team and therapeutic area expertise.”

Under the terms of the collaboration, Takeda will have the option to exclusively license the programs from Schrödinger later in discovery at established economic terms, including pre-clinical, clinical, and commercial milestones of up to $170 million per program, as well as royalties on future sales. Additional financial details are not being disclosed.

“We are very much looking forward to partnering with Takeda and marshalling its biology and development expertise with our world class computational chemistry and drug discovery capabilities to advance these programs,” said Ramy Farid, Ph.D., Schrödinger’s president and chief executive officer. “This alliance allows us the opportunity to fully exploit the power of our platform to accelerate the delivery of novel therapeutics to patients.”