Ono Pharma expands drug discovery collaboration with Neurimmune AG

Ono Pharmaceutical yesterday signed an expanded drug discovery collaboration agreement with Neurimmune AG. The collaboration is focused on creating antibody drugs against new therapeutic targets in the field of neurodegenerative diseases utilising Neurimmune’s proprietary Reverse Translational Medicine (RTM) technology platform, Ono Pharma notified in a statement.

In November 2017, Ono and Neurimmune had signed a first drug discovery collaboration agreement to identify and develop human-derived monoclonal antibodies using the RTM technology platform. In the new collaboration, the companies aim to generate and validate human-derived monoclonal antibodies against Ono’s newly selected drug targets. Ono will obtain exclusive rights for worldwide development and commercialisation of antibody products resulting from the collaboration. It will pay to Neurimmune an upfront payment, research fees, success-based milestones on the research and development progress, as well as royalties on product sales, the statement further said.

Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer/Executive Director, Discovery and Research, Ono Pharma, said, “Through this new collaboration, we will expand our central nervous system disease portfolio and work to deliver innovative medicines to patients with neurodegenerative diseases.”