Singapore: Japan-based Ono Pharmaceuticals recently announced that the company has entered into an agreement with Gilead Lifesciences for development and commercialization of ONO-4059, for the treatment of B-cell malignancies and other diseases.

With this deal Gilead is pushing further into oncology treatments. Under the terms of the agreement, Gilead will pay Ono an upfront payment plus additional payments based upon achievement of certain development, regulatory and commercial milestones.

The pact provides Gilead with exclusive rights to develop and commercialize ONO-4059 in all countries of the world outside of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, where ONO retains development and commercialization rights.

Mr Gyo Sagara, Ono's president, representative director and CEO, said, "We are pleased to partner with Gilead to accelerate worldwide development and commercialization of ONO-4059. Our goal is to bring better therapeutic options as quickly as possible for the patients with B-cell malignancies or other diseases in the world, and we believe we can fulfill the goal by pursuing the development of ONO-4059 with Gilead."

Gilead is working to build a strong foothold in oncology and had recently recruited Genetech's veteran Mr Philippe Bishop to take the lead as senior vice president of hematology and oncology therapeutics.

"With this agreement, Gilead now has compounds targeting four unique signaling pathways associated with B-cell malignancies - PI3K delta, Syk, JAK and BTK," said Mr Norbert W Bischofberger, PhD, Gilead's executive vice president, R&D and Chief Scientific Officer.

"In addition to evaluating ONO-4059 in combination with standards of care, we believe there is an opportunity to combine this compound with Gilead's other kinase inhibitors with a goal of achieving more pronounced and more durable response rates. We look forward to working with ONO to move the ONO-4059 development program forward as quickly as possible",he added.