MECHELEN, BELGIUM and SAFFRON WALDEN, UK--(Marketwire - October 12, 2011) - Galapagos NV
(Euronext: GLPG) announced today that its BioFocus service division has
extended
its collaboration with Chiesi Farmaceutici, a privately owned
Italian
pharmaceutical company, for a second time. This extension of the
collaboration
with Chiesi is valued at EUR2.8 million.
BioFocus and Chiesi began their collaboration in December 2009 and
have now
extended the agreement for a second time, until the end of 2012.
Under the
terms of the integrated collaboration agreement, BioFocus will provide
expanded
medicinal chemistry resource, biology services, and an option to perform
ADME
services, for an undisclosed Chiesi therapeutic program.
"BioFocus' offering complements mid-size pharmaceutical companies like
Chiesi by
providing specialized technologies, such as high-throughput
screening
capabilities, and disease-specific expertise," said Dr Chris Newton,
SVP
Services for Galapagos. "Our ability to add value to these
research-minded
organizations has been instrumental in building our substantial number of
long-running collaborations."
"We look forward to entering the third year of our ongoing collaboration
with
BioFocus. As we continue to progress the project, we plan to further
utilize
BioFocus' knowhow in medicinal chemistry and ADME optimization," 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 five
continents
with 24 direct affiliates, four research centers, and three 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
BioFocus provides integrated drug discovery that delivers pre-clinical
drug
candidates in all therapeutic areas with strong capability in
neurodegenerative
diseases, inflammatory diseases and with a growing track record of
delivering
candidates against rare and neglected diseases. BioFocus has
advanced and
comprehensive drug discovery capabilities that are applied to client
projects to
deliver targets, hits, leads and candidate pre-clinical drugs. The
company
employs over 220 exceptionally qualified and industry experienced
scientists at
its three research centers in the UK, Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Since
its foundation in 1997, BioFocus has striven to produce high quality
data for
its clients and this quality is assured by ISO9001 qualification
validated by
regular, independent inspection of all BioFocus research centers. 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 seven programs in development and over
50
discovery programs. Through risk/reward-sharing alliances with
GlaxoSmithKline,
Lilly, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Roche and Servier, Galapagos is eligible to
receive up to EUR2.8 billion in downstream milestones, plus royalties. The
Galapagos Group has about 800 employees and operates facilities in six
countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info at:
www.glpg.com
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