Schrödinger expands COVID-19 drug discovery efforts

Physics-based software platform developer Schrödinger (NASDAQ:SDGR) announces a “significant” expansion of its work to discover novel antivirals for COVID-19 under its partnership with a philanthropic global initiative. The accelerated pace, evaluating “billions” of molecules each week, is supported by Google Cloud.

It is leading the computational design work in an alliance with major biopharma firms, including Takeda (NYSE:TAK), Novartis (NYSE:NVS), Gilead Sciences (NASDAQ:GILD) and WuXi AppTec (OTCPK:WUXIF).

Thus far, it has evaluated four protein targets and has used Google Cloud to support ultra-large virtual screens for two.

Alliance partners will be responsible for acquiring and testing the most promising candidates and advancing them to lead optimization with Schrödinger’s assistance.

On another note, the company will partner with Thermo Fisher Scientific (NYSE:TMO) on extending the use of the latter’s cryo-EM technology to a wider range of targets that may not be amenable to structure prediction via x-ray crystallography. Financial terms are not disclosed.

https://seekingalpha.com/news/3585291-schrodinger-expands-covidminus-19-drug-discovery-efforts