Benzinga | Aug 4, 2021 07:38AM EDT

Schrdinger And Zai Lab Announce A Global R&D Collaboration In Oncology; Schrdinger Eligible To Receive Up To $338M In Milestone Payments

Schr?dinger, Inc. (NASDAQ:SDGR), whose physics-based software platform is transforming the way therapeutics and materials are discovered, and Zai Lab Limited (NASDAQ:ZLAB, HKEX: 9688))), an innovative commercial-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced a global discovery, development and commercialization collaboration focused on a novel program in oncology targeting DNA damage response.

"With an established track record of developing and commercializing therapeutics in oncology, Zai Lab is an ideal partner for Schr?dinger on this project," said Karen Akinsanya, Ph.D., executive vice president, chief biomedical scientist and head of discovery R&D at Schr?dinger. "Together, we will aim to accelerate and expand our focus on targeted DNA damage response inhibition, which is emerging as an important therapeutic strategy for a broad range of cancers. Additionally, the structure of this collaboration provides us with the opportunity to gain development and commercial expertise and the potential to participate more significantly in the downstream value of the program."

"We are pleased to be collaborating with Schr?dinger, a recognized leader in physics-based computational drug discovery," said Alan Sandler, M.D., president and head of global development, oncology, at Zai Lab. "This program will complement our existing discovery efforts in the DNA damage response pathway in addition to potential combinatorial approaches within our pipeline, such as with the PARP inhibitor Zejula."

The research program will be conducted jointly by the Schr?dinger and Zai Lab scientific teams. The companies will be responsible for their own research program expenses, and under the terms of the collaboration agreement, Zai Lab will make an upfront payment to Schr?dinger to help fund Schr?dinger's share of research costs. Following the selection of a development candidate, Zai Lab will assume primary responsibility for global development, manufacturing and commercialization. The agreement provides Schr?dinger co-development and co-commercialization rights in the U.S. If Schr?dinger elects to co-fund clinical development of a product candidate under the collaboration, it will be entitled to 50 percent of the profits, if any, from the commercialization of such product candidate in the United States. Schr?dinger will also be eligible to receive up to approximately $338 million in preclinical, clinical, regulatory and sales-based milestone payments. Additionally, Schr?dinger is entitled to receive royalties on net sales outside the U.S.