Merck Serono and Ono Pharmaceutical form new alliance

Merck Serono has entered into a new collaboration with Ono Pharmaceutical on the development of new multiple sclerosis and cancer treatments.

The companies have signed two separate agreements that will give Merck Serono commercialisation and development rights to ONO-4641, a novel oral compound for multiple sclerosis.

Merck Serono will be able to bring the investigational therapy to territories outside of Japan, Korea and Taiwan, with Ono receiving Japanese distribution rights to cancer immunotherapy option Stimuvax in return.

The firms will pay each other upfront fees as part of the rights exchange, which is aimed at bringing the treatments to a wider array of patients.

Dr Stefan Oschmann, president of Merck Serono, said: "Merck Serono is committed to building on our leadership franchise in multiple sclerosis and we are excited about adding a potential oral treatment, ONO-4641, to our pipeline."

This comes after Merck Serono acquired rights to the multiple sclerosis drug PI-2301 from Peptimmune last month.