The advancement of the compound into the pre-clinical development triggers an agreed milestone payment to Evotec, under the collaboration signed in March 2008.
Evotec chief operating officer Dr Mario Polywka said, "We are extremely pleased that we have collaborated with Ono Pharmaceutical on this important project and delivered a pre-clinical candidate."
According to the agreement, Evotec integrated high throughput screening and fragment-based drug discovery platform in identifying novel compounds active against a protease target.
The identified compounds were then further optimised with Ono to produce a candidate eligible for pre-clinical development.
Ono research headquarters managing director Dr Kazuhito Kawabata said, "During the entire project we could count on the access to various technologies and on the knowledge, but in particular on the drug discovery expertise of our colleagues from Evotec."