Mechelen, Belgium;
13 November 2009 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG)
announces today that third quarter 2009 operational
and financial results were in line with management expectations.
These results encourage the Company to retain full year
guidance of €100 million revenues, a growth of
30% compared to 2008. Galapagos’ service division
BioFocus will significantly increase its cash contribution
to the Group result for the full year 2009. With operational
cash burn also on track, Galapagos management increases
guidance for year-end 2009 cash position to €38
million due to the successful €18.2 million private
placement completed in October.
Galapagos also achieved
progress in its development programs in the third quarter.
The Company announced that its most advanced first-in-class
program, GLPG0259 for rheumatoid arthritis, demonstrated
safety and an excellent pharmacokinetic profile in a
first Phase I study; this compound started a second
Phase I study in September. Galapagos has completed
its first-in-human trial for the IRA program in bone
metastasis (GLPG0187) and expects to announce top-line
results at the start of 2010. With Nanocort starting
Phase II studies for the treatment of MS flares shortly
and the first candidate drug from the osteoarthritis
alliance with GSK entering the clinic next month, Galapagos
is on-track to have four programs in clinical development
by the end of 2009.
Furthermore in the third
quarter, the Company announced milestones in its arthritis
alliance with GlaxoSmithKline and its osteoporosis alliance
with Lilly. BioFocus signed agreements with Procter
& Gamble and Schering-Plough, and strengthened its
network of cutting-edge capabilities through partnerships
with Oncodesign and DiscoveRx. In September, Galapagos
announced a collaboration with Charley’s Fund
and the Nash Avery Foundation to investigate the potential
effectiveness of Galapagos’ SARM candidate drug
(GLPG0492) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
In October, Galapagos reached the first milestone in
the anti-infectives alliance with GlaxoSmithKline and
expanded the metabolic diseases alliance with Merck
& Co to include atherosclerosis.
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG; OTC: GLPYY) is a drug discovery
and development company with small molecule programs
in bone and joint diseases, bone metastasis, cachexia,
anti-infectives and metabolic diseases. It has established
risk sharing alliances with GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen
Pharmaceutica, Eli Lilly and Merck and Co. Through an
alliance with MorphoSys, Galapagos is also developing
new antibody therapies in bone and joint diseases. Its
division BioFocus offers a full suite of target-to-drug
discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and
biotech companies and to patient foundations, encompassing
target discovery and validation, screening and drug
discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates.
Galapagos currently employs 495 people and operates
facilities in six countries, with global headquarters
in Mechelen, Belgium. More info at: www.glpg.com
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
This release may contain forward-looking statements,
including, without limitation, statements containing
the words “believes,” “anticipates,”
“expects,” “intends,” “plans,”
“seeks,” “estimates,” “may,”
“will,” “could,” “stands
to,” and “continues,” as well as similar
expressions. Such forward-looking statements may involve
known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors
which might cause the actual results, financial condition,
performance or achievements of Galapagos, or industry
results, to be materially different from any historic
or future results, financial conditions, performance
or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. Given these uncertainties, the reader is
advised not to place any undue reliance on such forward-looking
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as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos
expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such
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which any such statement is based, unless required by
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