Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. announced that it has signed an expanded drug discovery collaboration agreement with Neurimmune AG (Zurich, Switzerland; CEO, Roger M Nitsch; “Neurimmune”). The collaboration is focused on creating antibody drugs against new therapeutic targets in the field of neurodegenerative diseases utilizing Neurimmune’s proprietary Reverse Translational Medicine (“RTM”) technology platform, a unique antibody drug creation approach.
In November 2017, Ono and Neurimmune 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 commercialization of antibody products resulting from the collaboration. Ono 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.
“We extremely appreciate Neurimmune’s RTM technology platform as an excellent antibody creation technology through our drug discovery projects.” said Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono Pharmaceutical. “Through this new collaboration, we will expand our central nervous system disease portfolio and work to deliver innovative medicines to patients with neurodegenerative diseases.”
“We are excited to expand our long-term trusted partnership with Ono, a global pioneer of innovative medicines,” said Jan Grimm, CSO of Neurimmune. “The joint goal of the collaboration is to discover novel drug candidates for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases using RTM™ technology.”