Schrodinger (SDGR) said Tuesday it has signed a research partnership and license deal with Novartis (NVS), with Novartis paying $150 million upfront and Schrodinger having the potential to earn up to $2.3 billion in milestone payments plus royalties.

The company said it will work with Novartis to identify and advance multiple drug candidates for development within Novartis's therapeutic portfolio. Under terms of the deal, Schrodinger will contribute to candidate discovery, while Novartis will manage clinical trials, manufacturing, and commercialization.

Schrodinger said it also signed an expanded software license agreement which will allow Novartis broad access to Schrodinger's computational drug discovery platform.

Shares of Schrodinger were up nearly 14% in recent Tuesday trading, while Novartis was down 0.5%

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