Ono and Evotec collaborate in new fragment-based drug discovery

German drug discovery company Evotec and Japanese company Ono Pharmaceutical Co have signed a new drug discovery agreement to develop novel small molecule drugs.

The collaboration applies Evotec's proprietary fragment-based drug discovery platform, EVOlution to identify novel, small molecular weight compounds active against a protease target. The platform integrates protein X-ray crystallography, computational chemistry, structural biology, biochemical, and NMR based fragment screening in combination with its high-quality fragment libraries. In the collaboration, it is combined with Evotec's expertise in medicinal chemistry and ADMET to further characterise active compounds identified and optimise their potency and selectivity to generate molecules for subsequent progression into clinical trials.

Under the agreement, Ono will Evotec initial payments for access to Evotec's fragment-based drug discovery platform EVOlution. Also included are research funding, success-based milestones based on the research progress.

Dr Mark Ashton, executive vice president business development services at Evotec, said: "We are extremely pleased that Evotec's capabilities in drug discovery and, in particular, our proprietary EVOlution platform for fragment-based drug discovery, have been so highly regarded by Ono and that they have chosen us as their partner for this collaboration."

"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," said Daikichi Fukushima, managing director, research headquarters at Ono.