Numab Therapeutics and Ono Pharmaceutical have announced that they will collaborate to identify a multi-specific antibody candidate for development in immuno-oncology.
Under the agreement, Numab, a biotech start-up from Pfäffikon in the canton of Schwyz, will receive research funding and up to CHF 258 million in upfront and milestone payments plus royalties on sales. In exchange Ono, which is headquartered in Osaka, Japan, will obtain an option to acquire intellectual property rights to the lead compound to be generated through this collaboration, as well as exclusive rights to develop and commercialise it.
“We are extremely pleased to start our collaboration with Ono,” said Oliver Middendorp, co-CEO of Numab.
Ono’s research director, Hiromu Habashita, praised Numab’s multi-specific antibody platform: “It is robust and optimised to reproducibly yield product candidates with outstanding binding properties.” He called it “ideally suited” to fuel Ono’s immuno-oncology drug discovery.
Numab was founded in 2011 and is headquartered in Pfäffikon. Numab Innovation AG has its offices in grow, a centre for entrepreneurs and start-ups located in Wädenswil in the canton of Zurich.
