Under the agreement, Ono will pay to Evotec initial payments (technology access fee) for access to Evotec’s fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlution, research funding as well as success-based milestones based on the research progress.
The collaboration applies Evotec’s proprietary fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlution to identify novel, small molecular weight compounds active against a protease target. In the collaboration it is combined with Evotec’s expertise in medicinal chemistry and ADMET to further characterize active compounds identified and optimize their potency and selectivity to generate molecules for subsequent progression into clinical trials.
Daikichi Fukushima, managing director, research headquarters at Ono, said: “We have the highest regards for the wide range of drug discovery technologies Evotec possesses and highly anticipate the collaboration will result in identifying a novel drug having high potentials.”