Ono Pharmaceutical

Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (小野薬品工業株式会社, Ono Yakuhin Kōgyō Kabushiki-gaisha) is one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in Japan. It is headquartered in Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan, with its major plants in Higashinari-ku, Osaka, and Fujinomiya, Shizuoka.,[4] and its central research institute at Minase, Shimamoto-cho, Mishima District, Osaka.[5]

Ono Pharmaceutical's roots go back to 1717 when Ichibei Ono (Japanese: 小野市兵衛) started his dealer business of pharmaceuticals in Osaka. His business expanded and changed its name a few times, and became Ono Pharmaceutical Industrial Co., Ltd. (Japanese: 小野薬品工業株式会社) in 1948.[6]

Ono has been listed in Tokyo Stock Exchange since 1963. Its consolidated earnings in the half year ending in March 2018 were 16 billion Japanese yen.[7]

Nivolumab, the cancer drug based on the research of Prof.Dr. Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University, who received the Nobel Prize later in 2018, is marketed by both Ono Pharmaceutical and Bristol-Myers Squibb.[8]

In 2024, Harvard University and Ono Pharmaceutical (ONO) entered into a joint research and drug development agreement. Under it, promising projects to test therapeutic targets will be selected over 5 years under the guidance of Harvard's Office of Technology Development, and ONO will fund the work.[9]