Saniona AB (STO:SANION), a biotechnology company within ion-channel research, announced on Thursday the selection by Boehringer Ingelheim of the first candidate for pre-clinical and clinical development under Saniona's and Boehringer Ingelheim's collaboration in schizophrenia.

As a result of this candidate selection by Boehringer Ingelheim, Saniona will now receive a research milestone of EUR4.0m.

Saniona had entered into a drug discovery and development collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim in 2016. This collaboration focuses on research of new small molecule therapeutics that could be capable of restoring brain network activity in patients with schizophrenia.

Also, Saniona may receive up to EUR90m in milestone payments including an upfront payment of EUR5m, which was paid upon signing of the agreement. These milestone payments include up to EUR50m upon the achievement of certain research, development and regulatory milestones and up to EUR35m n in commercial milestone.

In addition, Saniona is entitled to tiered royalties on net sales of any potential products commercialised by Boehringer Ingelheim as a result of this collaboration. Following the above milestone payment of EUR4m, Saniona will have received a total of EUR9m under the collaboration.

Saniona is a research and development company focused on drugs for diseases of the central nervous system, autoimmune diseases, metabolic diseases and treatment of pain.