| Wyeth
selects novel drug targets in osteoporosis collaboration with Galapagos
Mechelen,
Belgium, November 9th, 2004 – Galapagos Genomics announced
today that it has reached a research milestone in its osteoporosis
discovery program with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, the pharmaceutical
division of Wyeth (NYSE: WYE). Within the program, which was initiated
November 2003, Galapagos has used its osteoporosis disease expertise
in combination with its SilenceSelect™ adenoviral siRNA platform
to discover and validate novel drug targets that may affect bone
remodeling. Wyeth has now selected a set of these targets for internal
development, triggering a financial milestone for Galapagos. As
these targets are progressed by Wyeth, Galapagos has rights to additional
milestone payments that could amount up to $40 million.
“We
are excited that we have successfully delivered on our commitments
in our osteoporosis program with Wyeth. The selection of these targets
is a critical decision as it forms the basis for the development
of novel medicines,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.
“The milestone by Wyeth underlines the power of the SilenceSelect
platform as a powerful tool to discover novel drug targets and confirms
the strength of our discovery biology research team in osteoporosis”.
Disease
background
Osteoporosis is principally a disease of middle age during which
hormone levels essential for maintaining bone density decline. The
development of osteoporosis is characterized by a clinically significant
reduction in mean bone density due to an increase in bone resorption.
The disease is four times as common in women than men. The enormous
health care costs associated with osteoporosis, estimated at $15
billion in the USA, are related to the greatly increased incidence
of fractures in osteoporosis patients. Whereas most current therapies
have an anti-resorptive mechanism of action, agents with bone-forming
properties can be identified for future therapies by identifying
targets and molecules with anabolic functions and actions.
About
Galapagos Genomics NV
Galapagos is a genomics based drug discovery company with programs
in osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis, Alzheimer's
disease and asthma. Proprietary targets and compounds resulting
from Galapagos’ programs are both developed internally and
selectively out-licensed. Galádeno, Galapagos’ services
unit, provides reagents and functional screens to leading pharmaceutical,
biotech and nutraceutical companies for rapid identification and
validation of novel drug targets. Galapagos currently employs 70
people, including 22 PhD's, and occupies a discovery research facility
in Mechelen, Belgium, and a reagent and services business unit in
Leiden, The Netherlands. Partners include Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim,
Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Procter & Gamble, Vertex and
Wyeth. Galapagos was founded in 1999 by Crucell (Nasdaq, Euronext:
CRXL) and Tibotec to exploit Crucell's unique PER.C6® technology
for target discovery. The shareholders include Abingworth, Apax,
Burrill, AlpInvest, Crucell and Tibotec-Virco.
More
information about Galapagos can be found at www.galapagosgenomics.com.
Contact:
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
+31 6290 980 28
onno@galapagos.be
|
