MECHELEN, BELGIUM and SAFFRON WALDEN, UK--(Marketwire - October 14, 2010) - Galapagos NV
(Euronext: GLPG) announced today that its BioFocus service division has
expanded
a collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici, a privately held
Italian
pharmaceutical company. Total value for the collaboration with Chiesi
has now
reached EUR2.5 million.
BioFocus and Chiesi began their collaboration in December 2009 and
recently
extended it for one year. Under the terms of the extended
collaboration
agreement, BioFocus will provide medicinal chemistry and biology services,
with
an additional option for ADME services, for an undisclosed Chiesi
therapeutic
program.
"BioFocus has a high return business rate with clients, and we are pleased
that
Chiesi has chosen to extend this successful collaboration," said Onno van
de
Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. "The quality of the science at BioFocus enables
it to
sustain its position as a premier provider in drug discovery services."
"The medicinal chemistry and biology work performed by BioFocus so far
helped
us to accelerate progress on our therapeutic programs. We look
forward to
working with BioFocus to move these programs forward toward the clinic,"
said Dr
Paolo Chiesi, R&D Director and Vice-President of Chiesi Farmaceutici.
About Chiesi Farmaceutici
With over 3,500 employees around the world, the Chiesi Group
produces and
distributes successful drugs in 65 countries, and is present on 5
continents
with 24 direct affiliates, 4 research centres, and 3 production
sites.
Respiratory pathologies, special care medicine, and cardiovascular
disease are
its traditional areas of expertise where it offers many therapeutic
options
recognized for their effectiveness. More info at: www.chiesigroup.com
About BioFocus
BioFocusaims 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 a 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 mid-size biotechnology company
specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule and antibody
therapies with novel modes-of-action. The Company is progressing one of the
largest pipelines in biotech, with six clinical and over 50 small molecule
discovery/pre-clinical programs. Through risk/reward-sharing alliances with
GlaxoSmithKline, Lilly, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Merck & Co., Roche and
Servier,
Galapagos is eligible to receive up to EUR3.3 billion in downstream
milestones,
plus royalties. Following the acquisition of the Zagreb research center,
the
Galapagos Group now has over 800 employees and operates facilities in seven
countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info
at: www.glpg.com
This release may contain forward-looking statements, including,
without
limitation, statements containing the words "believes,"
"anticipates,"
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"could,"
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