Ligand Pharmaceuticals Incorporated, a biopharmaceutical company, has entered into a worldwide license agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical CoL, ltd. Under the license, Ono will be able to use the OmniRat, OmniMouse and OmniFlic platforms to discover fully human mono- and bispecific antibodies.

Ligand is eligible to receive annual platform access payments, development milestone payments and royalties for each product incorporating an OmniAb antibody. Ono will be responsible for all costs related to the programmes.

“Gaining access to the OmniAb platform provides Ono with an industry-leading novel technology for the discovery of antibody therapeutics,” said John Higgins, chief executive officer of Ligand. “This agreement continues to demonstrate the demand of companies with rich R&D histories to use OmniAb in their search for novel antibody therapeutics and further expands the global diversity of our OmniAb partners.”

“Following the development of human anti PD-1 monoclonal antibody Opdivo, we will continue to provide hope to sufferers of various diseases,” said Hiromu Habashita, corporate officer, and executive director of discovery & research. “The access to OmniAb platforms is expected to dramatically improve our discovery research in novel antibody therapeutics.”

OmniAb includes three transgenic animal platforms for producing mono- and bispecific human therapeutic antibodies. OmniRat is the industry’s first human monoclonal antibody technology based on rats. It has a complete immune system with a diverse antibody repertoire and generates antibodies with human idiotypes as effectively as wild-type animals make rat antibodies. OmniMouse is a transgenic mouse that complements OmniRat and expands epitope coverage. OmniFlic is an engineered rat with a fixed light chain for development of bispecific, fully human antibodies. The three platforms use patented technology, have broad freedom to operate and deliver fully human antibodies with high affinity, specificity, expression, solubility and stability.

Ligand is a biopharmaceutical company focused on developing or acquiring technologies that help pharmaceutical companies discover and develop medicines.

Ono Pharmaceutical Co Ltd , headquartered in Osaka, Japan, is an R&D-oriented pharmaceutical company committed to create innovative medicines in specific areas.