Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Osaka, Japan; President and COO: Toichi Takino; “Ono”) announced that it has entered into a drug discovery partnership and option agreement with Mediar Therapeutics, Inc. (Headquarters: Boston, Massachusetts, USA; CEO: Rahul Ballal, PhD; “Mediar”), a clinical-stage biotechnology company specializing in fibrosis drug discovery, to create novel antibody therapeutics for fibro-inflammatory diseases.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ono and Mediar will collaborate to discover and create antibody drug candidates against fibro-inflammatory diseases. Mediar will conduct research activities leveraging its antibody discovery capabilities and biological insights derived from its fibrosis-focused research platform. Ono will have an exclusive worldwide option right to select antibody drug candidates created through the partnership for further development, manufacturing and commercialization.

Ono Venture Investment, Inc., Ono’s corporate venture capital arm, participated as a member of the investor syndicate in Mediar’s seed extension financing round, which was completed in March 2021, and has since built a strong collaborative relationship with the company.

Ono is committed to reinforcing its R&D pipeline in the areas with high unmet medical needs, including immunology and inflammation. Through this partnership, Ono aims to accelerate the creation of innovative biologics and deliver new treatment options for patients suffering from fibro-inflammatory diseases.

“Fibro-inflammatory diseases remain areas of significant unmet medical need, and we believe biologics innovation is essential to provide meaningful therapeutic advances,” said Seishi Katsumata, Corporate Officer / Executive Vice President, Discovery & Research of Ono. “Mediar has established deep scientific expertise in fibrosis and antibody discovery. By combining Mediar’s capabilities with Ono’s experience in immunology and inflammation research area, we aim to create novel antibody therapeutics that may offer new treatment options for patients.”

“This strategic collaboration with Ono is an important milestone for Mediar and reflects the growing recognition that directly targeting the myofibroblast can unlock new therapeutic possibilities in fibrotic diseases,” said Rahul Ballal, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Mediar. “By using our expertise in antifibrotics discovery, we are positioned to advance new potential therapies across a broad range of diseases.”