Galapagos
and BASF extend research collaborations
Mechelen,
Belgium; 2 February, 2006 - Galapagos NV (Euronext &
LSE: GLPG) announced today that it has extended three research
collaborations into 2006 with BASF Aktiengesellschaft (NYSE
& XET: BASF) in Ludwigshafen, Germany. These extensions
will further progress discovery research services for BASF
programmes successfully undertaken by Galapagos’ service
division BioFocus in 2005. Across the various programmes,
BioFocus will offer biology, synthetic and computational
chemistry services, plus access to its biologically-targeted
SoftFocus® Kinase and GPCR compound libraries against
further BASF targets. Under the terms of the extension agreements,
BASF will pay compound supply and access fees and will fund
research activities. Total contract value of the extensions
announced today will exceed € 700,000.
“We
are delighted that BASF has chosen to extend these collaborations
with BioFocus,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos.
“We believe that our expertise in the area of kinase
and GPCR biology and chemistry, together with our proprietary
compound libraries, place BioFocus in an excellent position
to progress BASF’s discovery programmes rapidly.”
About Galapagos
Galapagos
is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company
(Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA, London
AiM: GLPG) that has drug discovery programs based on proprietary,
novel targets in the bone and joint diseases - osteoarthritis,
osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Galapagos offers
a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services
to pharmaceutical and biotech companies through its division
BioFocus, encompassing target discovery and validation,
and drug discovery services through to delivery of pre-clinical
candidates. In addition, BioFocus provides adenoviral reagents
for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets
and compound libraries for screening. Galapagos currently
employs 203 people, including 76 PhDs, and occupies facilities
in Mechelen, Belgium, Saffron Walden, UK and Leiden, The
Netherlands. The partners of Galapagos include Amgen, AstraZeneca,
Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Idenix,
Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth. More information
about Galapagos and BioFocus can be found at www.glpg.com.
CONTACT
Galapagos
NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com