Schrödinger announced an expansion of its computational design collaboration with Morphic Therapeutic, a biotechnology company focused on developing a new class of oral small-molecule integrin-targeted therapeutics that Schrödinger co-founded with Harvard Professor Timothy Springer, Ph.D., and Polaris Partners. The expanded agreement, signed in May 2019, extends the partnership to discover and design therapeutic compounds leveraging Schrödinger’s industry-leading computational platform. Under the terms of the amended agreement, Schrödinger will receive research funding as well as milestone payments and licensing royalties on candidate compounds that emerge from the collaboration.
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Through their partnership, Morphic and Schrödinger have accelerated the discovery and design of potent and selective integrin inhibitors and activators targeting serious chronic diseases, including autoimmune, cardiovascular, and metabolic diseases, fibrosis, and cancer. Schrödinger technology informs Morphic’s integrin technology, or MInT Platform, which leverages Morphic’s unique understanding of integrin structure and biology to develop a broad pipeline of novel product candidates designed to achieve the potency, high selectivity, and pharmaceutical properties required for oral administration.
“This collaboration brings together Morphic’s unparalleled insights into integrins and our proven, computational physics-based approaches to discovering and optimizing compound design. We’re excited to keep building on the momentum of our partnership, and we’ve seen tremendous validation for this approach through Morphic’s continued maturation, including its collaborations with large pharmaceutical companies and its recent initial public offering,” said Ramy Farid, Ph.D., Schrödinger’s Chief Executive Officer. “Extending our partnership will allow us to broaden our pipeline as we work together to tackle serious diseases with high unmet need.”