Alliance covers autoimmune diseases, cancer, and inflammatory diseases.

Ansaris says that it received a milestone payment from Ono Pharmaceutical for the successful identification of a kinase-related compound. Ono will initiate a preclinical study with the chosen molecule.

According to the firms’ agreement, which focuses on autoimmune diseases, cancer, and inflammation, Ono has worldwide rights to develop and commercialize all compounds discovered by Ansaris. In return, Ansaris is eligible for milestone payments pegged to the progress of preclinical and clinical development as well as royalty payments based on sales of those products.

Established in February 2009, Ansaris developed a platform that combines a torsion-space algorithm that reportedly results in better protein models with in silico fragment-based drug design. Ansaris says the platform can generate drug candidates where other small molecule discovery methods fail. It has been applied with success to kinases, proteases, phosphatases, and cell surface receptors in several therapeutic areas including oncology, inflammation, cardiovascular diseases, and infectious diseases, according to Ansaris.

Ono is one of numerous partners for Ansaris. The firm says it has established or successfully concluded collaborations with Amgen, Eli Lilly, Dow AgroSciences, DuPont, Novartis, P&G Pharmaceuticals, Scios, and Speedel.

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