A fifth collaboration for AI-driven firm

OSAKA, Japan & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.—March 18 saw Ono Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., a Japanese pharmaceutical research and development company, and twoXAR Inc., an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven biopharmaceutical company, announce that the companies have signed a research collaboration to jointly discover and develop novel, efficacious treatments to address unmet medical needs in a specific neurological disease. This marks the fifth drug discovery collaboration for twoXAR.

Under the agreement, twoXAR will use its proprietary AI technology to identify a set of lead compounds that demonstrate a novel mechanism of action and will be further optimized by Ono for potential drug candidates. twoXAR will also predict a set of hypotheses which suggest the efficacy and safety of such lead compounds for the therapy. twoXAR and Ono will select several compounds with their hypotheses from this set to test in further validation studies. Ono will retain exclusive rights to develop and commercialize the compounds obtained through this collaboration throughout the world, and in return, twoXAR will receive research and license fees from Ono, as well as development and sales milestones.

“As we expand our portfolio of drug discovery programs through collaborations with experienced drug development teams, we are honored to enter this collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical. Ono has a rich history in drug development, and our partnership represents their continual commitment to improve efficiency in R&D,” said Andrew A. Radin, co-founder and CEO of twoXAR. “twoXAR continues to grow its drug development partnerships internationally, and this collaboration with Ono represents our second with a globally operating, Japan-headquartered partner.”

Added Toichi Takino, Ono’s corporate officer/executive director of discovery and research: “We highly value twoXAR’s approach to help drug discovery because it enables rapid identification and in-vitro and in-vivo efficacy validation of new lead compounds. By combining Ono’s drug discovery experience and twoXAR’s AI technology, we believe that we can increase the speed and probability of success in discovering and developing innovative first-in-class drugs to expand our neurological disease pipeline.”