Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan; President and CEO: Gyo Sagara; “Ono”) today announced that it has entered into a comprehensive drug discovery collaboration agreement with the University of Oxford (Oxfordshire, UK; “Oxford") to verify drug discovery seeds and obtain screening compounds for the creation of innovative medicines.

 In this comprehensive collaboration, Ono will select drug discovery seeds from the portfolio of Oxford that align with our research priority themes, and Oxford will conduct validation tests and compound screening for the drug discovery seeds at Oxford. First, Ono has selected the research theme relating to neuroscience, which is one of our four priority research areas and is also an expertise area at Oxford.

 More specifically, Oxford will conduct target validation experiments and compound screening, and Ono will generate drug candidates based on the compounds obtained from Oxford including their hit compounds, towards the development and commercialization of new drug candidates. Ono will obtain an option right to exclusively develop and commercialize these drug candidates worldwide.

 The University of Oxford, located in Oxfordshire, UK, is a collegiate university and one of the top universities in the world. It has the Centre for Medicines Discovery, which is focusing on drug discovery, and based on basic research by experts and researchers with deep insights into drug discovery seeds. It possesses the research infrastructure and drug discovery capabilities that enables to obtain highly unique drug discovery seeds and hit compounds for difficult-to-modulate target groups.

 Ono has generated a number of innovative medicines, by proactively promoting “open innovation”, in the fields of cancer, immunology, neurology, and specialty area as priority areas for drug discovery. Ono keeps on committing to creating innovative medicines, aiming to become a global specialty pharma through our unique drug discovery approach based on the open innovation.

 “We are pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with the University of Oxford, which possesses world-leading research capabilities.” said Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono. “We expect the potential for the development of new treatment through this partnership.”

 “We are delighted to be starting this strategic collaboration with Ono Pharmaceuticals, to validate new therapeutic approaches across a range of different unmet medical needs. ” said John Davis, Professor of Pharmaceutical Discovery, Centre for Medicines Discovery, the University of Oxford. “Combining innovative academic research together with the development insights and capability of pharmaceutical industry partners is key to unlocking the potential of new research findings”