Evotec AG (Hamburg, Germany) has announced it is extending the protease collaboration it forged with Ono Pharmaceutical (Osaka, Japan) back in March 2008 and is entering into a new discovery agreement with the international drug development company. The new agreement targets an ion channel—ion channels are said to be implicated in cardiovascular, neurological, urological, metabolic, and inflammatory diseases.

Under the new agreement, Evotec will receive research funding for 18 months along with success-based milestones based on progress. Ono, meanwhile, is given worldwide rights to develop and market a product containing the compound discovered.

“Since...the existing collaboration with Evotec targeting a protease has progressed as planned, we are now pleased to enter into a new drug discovery agreement on an ion channel with Evotec utilizing their proprietary drug discovery platform," said Ono's Kazuhito Kawabata, PhD, Managing Director, Research Headquarters. "We anticipate the collaboration will result in identifying a novel drug candidate with a high potential.”