[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.

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.

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.