Mar.26.2021
R & D

ONO Joins the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium

 Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan; President, Representative Director, Gyo Sagara; “ONO”) announced that it has joined the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium (Irvine, CA, U.S.; “UC DDC”).

 UC DDC is composed of seven participating University of California (UC) campuses: UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC Irvine, UC Los Angeles, UC Riverside, UC San Diego, and UC San Francisco. Since its inception in 2017, UC DDC has fostered research by UC researchers aimed at the development of therapeutics for unmet medical needs, through innovative drug discovery research and streamlined collaboration with pharmaceutical industry partners.

 This membership allows ONO to approach to early-stage research themes originating from any of the seven UC DDC campuses. We will support the development of UC DDC innovative ideas leading to future medications, and efficiently promote drug discovery research based on those ideas. Furthermore, ONO scientists will be able to join the UC DDC scientific community through participation in UC DDC hosting annual symposium and other events highlighting the most up-to-date research ideas. By harnessing such expertise, we will continue to promote research and development in our priority areas.

 “We greatly appreciate the network of scientists in the University of California Drug Discovery Consortium and are very pleased to join this consortium,” said Toichi Takino, Executive Officer and Executive Director of Discovery & Research of ONO. “Through this research collaboration in this consortium, we will work together with the scientists to discover and develop innovative medicines that will fulfill unmet medical needs and deliver them to patients in the world as soon as possible.”

 “Going from academic research at the lab bench to a new therapy requires connecting with companies in pharma/biotech, and the UC DDC helps make those connections,” said Michael K. Gilson, MD, PhD, consortium chair and UC San Diego professor of computer-aided drug design. “The UC DDC is a unique portal to the drug discovery activities across multiple UC campuses and offers a seamless mechanism for industry members to connect with UC’s innovators in this space. Support from industry partners helps researchers at the University of California build on their basic biomedical discoveries to create new medications. We are excited to have ONO joins as our newest sponsor.”

About UC DDC

 The University of California lays claim to the largest pool of academic biomedical researchers in the country. UC Drug Discovery Consortium originated from the Drugs, Devices, Diagnostics, Development (D4) group of the University of California Biomedical Research Acceleration, Integration and Development (UC BRAID) and that was enabled by a 3-year UC Office of the President grant. The UC DDC implements a single contractual agreement that provides partners with expedited access to research opportunities across seven UC campuses, combined with a unique seed grant award model to fund academic science. The DDC also promotes workforce development and education by hosting workshops that introduce trainees to the methods and technologies involved in the drug discovery process, and fosters research communication by hosting an annual symposium that brings together drug discovery researchers from across the campuses to share their developments and ideas. More information is available at https://www.ucdrugdiscovery.org/ .