AMRI, a global contract research and manufacturing organization, has entered into a new five-year service agreement with Ono Pharmaceutical, a pharmaceutical company based in Osaka, Japan

AMRI may provide Ono a range of services from early drug discovery to cGMP manufacturing. The two companies have already agreed to medicinal chemistry projects within the new framework to collaborate on additional hit-to-lead and lead optimization for two new molecules, with the work to take place at AMRI's medicinal chemistry laboratories in Albany, N.Y.

An early adopter of the AMRI Smartsourcing concept, Ono has been utilizing AMRI's integrated global facilities and capabilities for projects ranging from early drug discovery, including high-throughput screening (HTS), biology support and computer-aided drug discovery (CADD), to multiple medicinal chemistry programs and a variety of drug development and cGMP programs.

"Smartsourcing is an industry leading movement to strategic decision making and the true measurement of results and success in drug discovery, development and manufacturing,” said Louis Garguilo, vice president of business development. “Over the years, our relationship with Ono has grown based on this type of value-added collaboration. We are also happy to announce this expanding relationship in conjunction with the 2013 Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) International Convention in Chicago, at the one-year anniversary of our re-branding launch of AMRI Smartsourcing at this very show last year in Boston."