Sai Life Sciences opens SSRL, a dedicated research facility for Schrödinger, at its Hyderabad R&D Campus

• Fully equipped labs with 75-member team set-up and made operational in <100 days

Sai Life Sciences, one of India’s fastest growing global Contract Research, Development & Manufacturing Organisations (CRO-CDMO), today announced the opening of Sai Schrödinger Research Laboratories (SSRL) at its R&D campus in Hyderabad, India. The facility was inaugurated by Dr. Karen Akinsanya, President of R&D, Therapeutics at Schrödinger Inc., in the presence of members of the leadership team of Schrödinger and Sai Life Sciences.

Inaugurating the facility, Dr. Karen Akinsanya said, “We selected Sai Life Sciences as our CRO late last year, and we are extremely pleased that they are now poised to begin work on our programs with a highly experienced and dedicated team at a state-of-the-art facility. Sai Life Sciences will play an important role in advancing our drug discovery and early development activities, and we look forward to working closely together.”

In January 2023, Sai Life Sciences entered into a 5-year strategic agreement with Schrödinger, whose physics-based computational platform is transforming the way therapeutics and materials are discovered, to set up SSRL in Hyderabad, India. Soon after, Sai Life Sciences commenced the build-up of the facility along with recruitment of scientific staff, to drive the project to completion in an accelerated time frame.

Speaking at the occasion, Krishna Kanumuri, CEO & Managing Director, Sai Life Sciences said, “Our collaboration with Schrödinger marks an exciting new start for us at Sai Life Sciences, with a dedicated facility to support multiple discovery programs. The trust they’ve placed in us is a testimony to the advances we have made in the scale, scope and depth of our integrated drug discovery capabilities. I look forward to a productive collaboration.”

On the occasion, Dr. Karen Akinsanya and Krishna Kanumuri, met notable officials representing the Hon’ble Minister for Industries & Commerce, Government of Telangana, Shri KT Rama Rao, to apprise them of the nature of the collaboration and the role that Sai Schrödinger Research Laboratories (SSRL) will play in advancing drug discovery and development.

Set up inside Sai Life Sciences’ R&D campus in Genome Valley, SSRL is a dedicated facility for integrated discovery work streams including medicinal & synthetic chemistry, in vitro biology, and process chemistry. SSRL will access other Sai capabilities such as in vitro ADME and in vivo PK as needed. The relationship will support advancement of programs that leverage Schrödinger’s validated computational platform. Currently, SSRL has 75 employees across full-time-equivalents (FTEs) in Medicinal Chemistry, Biology, Process Chemistry and Analytical Chemistry.