Schrödinger aims to upload its digital drug discovery efforts to Google’s cloud network with plans to employ thousands of processors to simulate billions of potential compounds per week.
The three-year collaboration with Google Cloud is designed to substantially increase the speed and capacity of its physics-based molecule modeling platform, the company said, with supercomputer-level power being distributed among nationwide centers.
“We’re excited to harness Google Cloud’s highly scalable system to run extensive free energy calculations to assess binding affinities through our compute-intensive FEP+ application,” said Schrödinger’s chief information officer, Shane Brauner, describing the company’s program for virtually screening the strength of potential ligands.
“This partnership is expected to allow us to expand the use of our physics-based computational platform to continue to rapidly explore very large swaths of chemical space,” Brauner said in a statement.
The agreement comes on the heels of Schrödinger’s Nasdaq IPO last month—which went on to raise about $232 million—to help boost its own early pipeline of internally developed drugs. Plus the $110 million the company raised in venture funding last year, the proceeds will support at least five wholly owned programs launched since mid-2018.
Those efforts are focused on discovering and developing small-molecule inhibitors for targets in DNA damage response pathways and related cancers, the company said in its Securities and Exchange Commission filings. It plans to launch IND-enabling, preclinical studies by the first half of 2021.
But Schrödinger is also continuing to provide its drug discovery services to Big Pharma companies. Earlier this year, it inked a five-year deal with Bayer to digitally screen therapeutic candidates, following similar pacts with Sanofi and AstraZeneca.