Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (TYO: 4528, “Ono”) and Phylo today announced a collaboration to introduce Phylo's agentic AI platform for biomedical research, Biomni Lab, to Ono's drug discovery scientist team.
Founded in 1717 and headquartered in Osaka, Ono is a research-driven company dedicated to discovering innovative drugs for patients with serious diseases. Its therapies, including the pioneering cancer immunotherapy OPDIVO® (nivolumab), have benefited millions of patients globally. Ono's modern strategy is built on proactive open innovation, which includes leveraging AI to shorten the path from idea to novel compound and improve the speed and success rate of discovery.
Phylo is a natural partner to enhance Ono's over 300 years of scientific expertise. Its Biomni Lab platform enables scientists to collaborate with AI agents to complete complex end-to-end workflows—from integrating experimental history and reasoning over internal data to designing experiments and executing computational biology. By combining Ono's discovery expertise and historical data with Biomni Lab's rigorous and scalable agentic AI platform, the partnership helps scientists move from asking a question to achieving a discovery in a fraction of the time.
"We believe AI will become a core capability in drug discovery. Given that patients are waiting for new medicines, there is an urgent need to help scientists accelerate research without sacrificing scientific rigor. Biomni Lab stood out because our researchers quickly adopted it and saw its potential to speed up day-to-day discovery. We look forward to partnering with Phylo to explore how agentic AI can help bring new medicines to patients faster," said Seishi Katsu, Corporate Executive Vice President and Head of Discovery & Research at Ono.
"We believe drug discovery can become faster and more efficient through the collaborative work of scientists and AI agents. Ono's discovery leadership in oncology, immunology and inflammation, and neurology makes it an ideal partner to demonstrate how this new way of working can accelerate breakthrough research," said Dr. Kexin Huang, Co-founder and CEO of Phylo.
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