Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., entered into a drug discovery collaboration agreement with Adimab, LLC, a company involved in the discovery and optimization of fully human monoclonal and bispecific antibodies, to discover and develop innovative antibody drugs in the oncology field.

Under the terms of the agreement, Adimab will discover novel therapeutic antibodies against multiple targets selected by Ono and generate bispecific antibody product candidates. Ono will evaluate and develop such candidates at the preclinical and clinical stages.

Ono will have an option to obtain exclusive rights to globally develop, manufacture, and commercialize the candidates to be generated through this collaboration. Ono will pay to Adimab an upfront payment, R&D funding, success-based research, clinical development, and regulatory milestones, as well as royalties on sales.

“We are actively working to create biologics like antibodies in order to address unmet medical needs for a wide range of diseases including cancers, said Toichi Takino, senior executive officer/executive director, discovery, and research of Ono. “We are very pleased to collaborate with Adimab this time in the oncology area and expect that their multi-specific antibody engineering technologies will create potential novel bispecific antibody candidates. We believe that this collaboration will enhance the creation of our targeted antibody products and bring them for patients with cancers as soon as possible.”