Ono enters drug discovery pact, option agreement with Shattuck Labs

Ono Pharmaceutical announced that it has entered into a drug discovery collaboration and option agreement with Shattuck Labs to generate bifunctional fusion proteins for pathways involved in autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. Under the terms of the agreement, Shattuck will generate fusion proteins for certain targets using its proprietary protein engineering technology and provide Ono with drug candidates for further optimization and clinical development. Ono will have an exclusive option right to develop and commercialize multiple potential drug candidates to be created through this collaboration worldwide. Ono will pay to Shattuck research funding, an up-front payment, milestones on the progress of research and development and commercialization, up to a total of $227M, as well as tiered royalties based on net sales. These fusion proteins are designed to modulate two targets associated with autoimmune and inflammatory diseases. In pre-clinical studies conducted by Shattuck, the bifunctional fusion proteins demonstrated immunoregulatory effects and may show efficacy on a broad range of immune and inflammatory diseases.