twoXAR & Ono Pharmaceutical: Discovering First-in-Class Drug Candidates for Neurological Diseases Together

by: Andrew A. Radin
CEO, twoXAR

I’m pleased to announce that we have signed our second partnership deal of 2019; this time in a (undisclosed) neurological disease with Ono Pharmaceutical.

Ono recently celebrated their 300th anniversary of delivering medications to patients in need. When I visited their research headquarters in Osaka, Japan I was impressed by the exposition in their lobby chronicling their rich history. I was reminded of the evolution of the industry and of twoXAR itself.

Apothecary started by Ichibei Fushimiya, which developed into Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (illustration from a guidebook of Osaka, 1867)

In the early days of twoXAR, we were focused on proof-of concept studies. Our very first proof-of-concept work was with Dr. Tim Collier at the NIH Udall Center of Excellence in Parkinson’s Disease Research at Michigan State University. In that project we used our computational platform to assist Dr. Collier by independently reaching similar scientific conclusions.

Early days at twoXAR, Circa 2014

Since that time, we have used our technology to produce a myriad of new drug candidates in a wide range of therapeutic areas including cancer, metabolic and inflammatory conditions. However, we haven’t launched a formal neurology program since our collaboration with Dr. Collier years ago.

Researching new drug candidates in neurology with Ono represents a return to our roots at twoXAR. With Ono’s global history of drug development, we are confident we have found the right industry partner to work with.

In our collaboration, the objective is to discover and develop a new drug together. We will use twoXAR’s discovery technology to produce new drug candidates with novel mechanisms of action, and Ono will run validation studies. As with all our industry partnerships, we are aligned through a shared risk / shared reward partnership.

Although the history of Ono and twoXAR exist on very different timescales, our complementary capabilities align us for a powerful partnership. We are proud to be partnering with Ono to discover and develop new therapies for neurological patients in need.