Japan-based Ono Pharmaceutical Co Ltd announced on Monday an expansion of its multi-target research collaboration with Canadian biotechnology company Congruence Therapeutics.

The expanded collaboration is focused on two clinically validated high-value targets in the areas of neurology and immunology for which Congruence will lead the effort to discover small molecule modulators and advance them to the development candidate stage. Ono will have the option to secure exclusive worldwide rights to further develop and commercialise development candidates generated under the new agreement.

The new collaboration continues to leverage Congruence's computational drug discovery engine, Revenir, which systematically captures the biophysical features of proteins in different functional states to enable a highly differentiated approach to small-molecule discovery.

Under the terms of the new agreement, Congruence will receive an undisclosed upfront payment and is eligible to receive additional payments upon the achievement of certain milestones in discovery, development, approval and commercialisation, as well as tiered royalties based on annual net sales of related products. Ono will reimburse Congruence for the internal and external research costs it incurs in connection with the activities undertaken in the expanded partnership.