Open Innovation That Supports Drug Discovery
Since the 1960s, we have identified new drug discovery seeds through partnerships with universities and other research institutes in drug discovery research on prostaglandins, and have used these seeds as a starting point to create groundbreaking new drugs. This was more than 30 years before Professor Henry Chesbrough of Harvard University proposed the concept of open innovation in 2003.
The Discovery Research Alliance Department and the Business Development Department cooperating with Research Centers and Clinical Development Divisions are presently taking the lead in collaborating on research with world-class researchers and forming drug discovery alliances with bio-venture companies with a focus on our priority research areas, and are actively in-licensing various drug candidates. Partnerships with a sense of urgency are required to obtain the latest research information ahead of competitors and quickly use this information in drug discovery. Toward this end, we have sent Ono’s researchers with practical experience in drug discovery to our locally incorporated subsidiaries in the US and UK, and they are visiting world-leading researchers and bio-venture companies in the U.S. and Europe to launch more new partnerships.
Currently, more than 300 research collaborations are in progress globally.
Ono Venture Investment, Inc.
In FY2020, we launched a U.S. subsidiary, Ono Venture Investment, Inc. We expect to further enhance our competitiveness in drug discovery and R&D via strategic investments in research on drug targets and advanced technologies that lead to breakthrough new drugs.
Ono Venture Investment invests in early stage biopharma startups for the purpose of drug target identification and in-licensing or partnering of cutting-edge technologies to discover innovative drugs.