Research

japanese
Aiming at Developing Original New Drugs to Global Standards
Ono's research and development principle is to "Deliver our contributions to society by developing drugs that truly benefit patients". We put this into practice by tackling diseases that remain unconquered as yet and areas that are high in healthcare needs where patient satisfaction of treatment is still low.

This principle delineates the management policy of our R&D activities, which are:
1. Focus on areas where the technologies and know-how accumulated over our long history can be optimized
2. Tackle new areas (i.e. modulators of membrane transport system, biotechnology based medicines)
3. Utilize breakthrough drug discovery seeds and leading-edge technologies from the world over
4. Pursue quality and speed of research
Aiming at develop new drugs to global standards, our tireless effort continues.
With Outstanding Technology and Know-how, Producing Original New Drugs to Global Standards
To develop original new drugs to global standards, Ono is engaged in drug discovery research based on accumulated technologies and know-how - in areas where our strengths can be fully exploited (i.e. bioactive lipid agonists and enzyme inhibitors such as proteases and kinases), as well as in areas offering new challenges.

The latter includes modulators of membrane transport system such as ion-channels and transporters as well as biotechnology based medicines. This is an area where our know-how from neuroscience research and our gene assets can be effectively deployed. Using the cutting-edge drug discovery technologies that bio-pharmaceutical companies have to offer, we will drive forward our R&D.
Drug Discovery to Fulfill the Unmet Medical Needs of Frontline Healthcare
The probability of a new substance discovered during basic research turning into an approved drug is 1 in 19,000. The discovered compound takes ten years or more to reach patients as a new drug. The cost of developing a new drug amounts to 50 billion yen or even 100 billion yen. Thus, the development of a new drug is the fruit of many years of labor and massive R&D expenditures.

However, no matter how much time and money are spent, the successful development of a new drug is not a certainly by any means. The reality is a worldwide decline in the success rate of development of new candidate compounds with innovative mechanisms. In this context, Ono is dedicating effort into the discovery of drugs that fulfill the unmet medical needs at the frontline of healthcare.