The progression of the compound into pre-clinical development has triggered a milestone payment to Evotec from Ono, as per the deal signed between the companies 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."
Evotec leveraged the combination of screening and fragment-based drug discovery platform for identifying compounds against a protease target.
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."