ONO PHARMACEUTICAL : Announcement on Establishment of Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases Consortium for Drug Development (34.7KB)

May 30, 2018

Announcement on Establishment of Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases

Consortium for Drug Development

Start of collaborative/competitive drug discovery research by three academic institutions and three pharmaceutical companies

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (President, Representative Director and CEO, Gyo Sagara; "Ono") announced today that Ono, Keio University (President, Akira Haseyama), Kochi University (President, Katsutoshi Sakurai), National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition (Director General, Yoshihiro Yoneda), Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation (President & Representative Director, Masayuki Mitsuka) and Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd. (Representative Director, President and COO, Sunao Manabe) established the Immune-mediated Inflammatory Diseases Consortium for Drug Development with the purpose of drug discovery research targeting immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.

In recent years, data obtained through the use of leading-edge technology to analyze clinical samples have been used in drug discovery research with the aim of curing immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. However, due to limitations on clinical samples from immune-mediated inflammatory diseases and further increases in research costs, it will be more difficult to efficiently develop new drugs with only the conventional model of one-to-one academic-industry collaboration.

The consortium will work to overcome these challenges. To that end, Keio University Hospital's Rheumatology Department and Gastroenterology and Hepatology Department and Kochi Medical School Hospital's Center for Intractable Immune Disease will collect clinical samples and disease-related information before and after treatment from patients with multiple immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. These clinical samples will be examined at the National Institutes of Biomedical Innovation, Health and Nutrition through detailed and comprehensive analyses including gene expression profiling. A high-quality database will be constructed based on the data accumulated by the consortium and it will be shared among the academic institutions and the pharmaceutical companies. The individual pharmaceutical company will utilize this database and conduct independent drug discovery research for immune-mediated inflammatory diseases. The academic institutions will utilize the outcome for further basic and applied research. The consortium will be operated in accordance with this unique concept of academic-industrial partnership.

Ono is aiming to create original and innovative medicines for immune diseases with high medical needs as one of the priority research areas. We expect that the outcomes obtained from this consortium will lead to the creation of next-generation drugs with high utility against immune-mediated inflammatory diseases, which will make it possible to provide new treatment options to patients and physicians.

Contact

ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD. Corporate Communicationspublic_relations@ono.co.jp