Schrödinger Reaches Milestone in Research Alliance with Solvay Pharmaceuticals
NEW YORK, NY (October 28,
2009) – Schrödinger announced today that it has successfully designed
an inhibitor for an undisclosed enzyme that fulfills the milestone
criteria for a pre-clinical candidate in a research collaboration with
its long-time client, Solvay Pharmaceuticals. Citing its consistent
innovations in drug discovery software, Solvay in early 2008 chose
Schrödinger as its global core software provider. Later in 2008, Solvay
entered into a research alliance with Schrödinger. Frédéric Cren,
Solvay's Executive Vice President, Research at Solvay Pharmaceuticals,
states "This partnership is a perfect example of Solvay's new research
strategy to accelerate internal and external programs by building
alliances with carefully selected partners who are chosen for their
abilities to bring innovative technologies to compound design."
Since
the alliance's formation, Schrödinger and Solvay scientists have
collaborated on two projects. The first included hit identification and
subsequent hit-to-lead and lead optimization support for an undisclosed
enzyme, which plays an important role in the pathophysiology of
pulmonary hypertension. Using Schrödinger's in-silico virtual screening
technology, the hit rate was dramatically improved over previous
traditional HTS methods, and furthermore, the hits were potent and
demonstrated superior selectivity against a second isoform of the
enzyme.
In the second project, Schrödinger collaborated with
Solvay's Medicinal Chemistry group to provide lead optimization support
for an undisclosed enzyme program, with the challenging goal to
discover new chemotypes fulfilling Solvay’s pre-clinical candidate
criteria. Utilizing Schrödinger's suite of drug discovery tools, the
initial compound to be synthesized was found to fulfill Solvay’s
internal milestone criteria for pre-clinical candidates. Based on
additional computational analyses, Schrödinger also proposed a new
compound class that in early testing has shown great promise.
"We
are very pleased that we were able to bring the full suite of our
discovery tools to bear in the collaboration projects with Solvay."
said Dr. Ramy Farid,
Schrödinger's President, "These exciting results are further validation
of our in-silico platform technology; we look forward to building on
these successes as we forge ahead."
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About Schrödinger
Schrödinger
is a scientific leader in developing state-of-the-art chemical
simulation software for use in pharmaceutical and biotechnology
research. The Company provides products ranging from general molecular
modeling programs to a full-featured suite of drug design software
using both ligand- and structure-based methods. The predictive power of
Schrödinger's software allows scientists to accelerate their research
and development activities, reduce research costs, and make novel
discoveries that might not be possible otherwise, which are enabled
through the Company’s breakthroughs in the fields of quantum chemistry,
molecular modeling, drug design, and protein structure determination.
Schrödinger operates from locations in New York, Oregon, California,
Germany, and the UK. For more information, please visit www.schrodinger.com .
About Solvay Pharmaceuticals
Solvay
Pharmaceuticals is a research driven group of companies that
constitutes the global pharmaceutical business of the Solvay Group.
These companies seek to fulfill carefully selected, unmet medical needs
in the therapeutic areas of neuroscience, cardiometabolic, influenza
vaccines, gastroenterology and men's and women's health. Its 2008 sales
were EUR 2.7 billion, and it employs more than 9,000 people worldwide.
For more information, visit www.solvaypharmaceuticals.com.
Contacts:
Shi-Yi Liu, Schrödinger
(503) 299-1150
Shi-Yi.Liu@schrodinger.com