Mechelen, Belgium;
12 January 2010 – Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced
today that its BioFocus service division has achieved success
in its oncology target discovery collaboration with Ortho
Biotech Oncology Research & Development, a division
of Janssen Pharmaceutica N.V. (Janssen). The success of
the program has resulted in €1.6 million in target
acceptance payments to BioFocus.
In the two-year target discovery
collaboration initiated in January 2008, BioFocus performed
assay development using cancer cells, target discovery with
the SilenceSelect® adenoviral collection as well as
target validation. Today’s success involved BioFocus
developing advanced cellular assays using high-content imaging,
and identifying and validating novel drug targets for cancer
areas with unmet medical need. The collaboration has been
extended into 2010, to enable BioFocus to further develop
complex screening assays for additional targets. BioFocus
may receive success-based payment of up to an additional
€4.5 million should certain downstream criteria be
reached by Janssen.
“This latest success
in discovering new cancer drug targets using advanced cellular
assays illustrates the versatility of our target discovery
platform,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive
Officer of Galapagos.
About BioFocus
BioFocus aims to expand its partners’ drug pipelines
by accelerating the gene-to-drug candidate discovery process.
This is achieved through a comprehensive discovery platform,
which includes target discovery in human primary cells,
focused as well as diverse compound libraries, in vitro
and cell-based screening, structural biology, medicinal
chemistry, ADME/PK services, supported by unique chemogenomic
and informatics tools, and compound library acquisition,
storage and distribution services. As the service division
of Galapagos, BioFocus has over 250 employees in four countries
worldwide. More info at: www.biofocus.com
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, Eli Lilly, Merck & Co.
and Roche. 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 has more
than 500 employees and operates facilities in six countries,
with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info
at: www.glpg.com
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Elizabeth Goodwin, Director Investor Relations
Tel: +31 6 2291 6240
ir@glpg.com
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