Canada-based Congruence Therapeutics and Japan’s Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd announced the expansion of their existing research collaboration to include two additional drug discovery programs in neurology and immunology. The partnership, which began in December 2024 with a focus on oncology, will now span three therapeutic areas.
Under the expanded agreement, Congruence will apply its proprietary Revenir drug discovery platform to identify and advance small molecule modulators against two clinically validated targets and lead early development. Ono will hold an option to obtain exclusive worldwide rights to develop and commercialize any resulting development candidates. Congruence will receive an upfront payment and reimbursement for internal and external research costs, and may earn milestone payments tied to discovery, development, regulatory approval, and commercialization, with specifics not disclosed. The company is also eligible for tiered royalties on annual net sales of any resulting products.
The companies did not disclose the specific biological targets, describing them only as “clinically validated high-value targets,” one in neurology and one in immunology.
The Revenir drug discovery platform
The collaboration centers on Congruence’s Revenir platform, which uses computational biophysics to model the dynamic conformational behavior of proteins. By capturing how proteins shift between functional states, the platform can identify allosteric or cryptic binding pockets that are not visible in static structural data.