Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Osaka, Japan; President, Representative Director, Gyo Sagara; ”Ono”) today announced that it has extended a currently existing drug discovery collaboration agreement with Vanderbilt University (Tennessee, USA) to discover novel, efficacious therapeutic drugs for diseases with unmet medical needs.

　Under the agreement concluded initially in November 2015, Ono and Vanderbilt University have been engaged in jointly identifying compounds to validate if an under-explored family of ion channels or transporters has a potential for a therapeutic target, and based on the validation, will discover clinical candidates for the treatment of CNS disorders. Taking into the favorable performance in the collaboration, both parties signed the agreement to extend the collaboration period until November 2023.

　“Vanderbilt University has excellent expertise and accomplishments in drug discovery,” said Toichi Takino, Senior Executive Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono Pharmaceutical. “We hope that our collaboration with Vanderbilt University will lead to the creation of innovative therapeutic drugs for diseases with unmet medical needs, by combining the academia technologies with Ono’s R&D experience.”

　“The collaboration with Ono has been terrific at every possible level,” said Craig Lindsley, the William K. Warren, Jr. Chair in Medicine and University Professor of biochemistry, chemistry and pharmacology as well as a director of Warren Center for Neuroscience Drug Discovery (WCNDD). “Together, we are creating new compounds that are deciphering the roles and therapeutic potential of a unique class of ion channels, and we now have our sights on moving these into clinical development.”