Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka, Japan; President: Toichi Takino; “Ono”) announced that it has entered into an agreement to expand the drug discovery collaboration agreement with Congruence Therapeutics (Headquarters: Montreal, Quebec, Canada; CEO: Clarissa Desjardins; “Congruence”) for the discovery of novel small molecule modulators against multiple protein targets in the areas of neurology and immunology.

In December 2024, we entered into an option-type drug discovery collaboration agreement with Congruence, utilizing their proprietary Revenir™ drug discovery platform to generate small molecule drug candidates in the field of oncology. The new agreement aims to create small molecule modulators in therapeutic areas distinct from the previous agreement. As with the prior agreement, under this new collaboration, Congruence will generate small molecule drug candidates targeting different proteins in the areas of neurology and immunology, respectively. Ono will obtain exclusive worldwide option rights to develop, manufacture and commercialize the selected small molecule drug candidates generated by Congruence. Under the terms of this agreement, Ono will pay Congruence an upfront payment, research funding, and milestone payments based on research, development and commercialization progress, as well as tiered royalties on net sales after product launch.

“Congruence’s advanced computational discovery engine is attracting growing global attention with its lead program entering clinical development. We are honored that our ongoing collaboration with Congruence is expanding beyond oncology to other priority areas including both neurology and immunology,” said Seishi Katsumata, Corporate Officer / Executive Director, Discovery & Research of Ono. “Through this partnership, we will be committed to accelerating the drug development so that we can deliver innovative new medicines to patients with unmet medical needs as quickly as possible.”

“We are excited to expand our partnership with Ono, a global pioneer of innovative medicines,” said Sharath Hegde PhD, Chief Scientific Officer of Congruence. “The expansion is a testament to the significant contributions we have made in our existing collaboration as well as the trust and confidence we continue to build with Ono. We look forward to leveraging the complementary strengths of both organizations to advance important research for the benefit of patients.”