MECHELEN, BELGIUM--(Marketwire - 03/02/11) - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that it delivered a fourth candidate drug in its arthritis alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) in December 2010. This achievement triggered a EUR6.7 million milestone payment to Galapagos, which was included in 2010 revenues. This latest pre-clinical candidate is a small molecule that meets the chemical and biological criteria set by GSK for a potential new medicine. Galapagos will now start scale-up chemistry and comprehensive safety evaluation, with the aim to initiate Phase I clinical trials in early 2012.
“The arthritis alliance with GSK has been very fruitful in delivering promising candidate drugs,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “In this alliance, we currently have two clinical trials, with plans to progress this new candidate into the clinic next year.”
About Galapagos’ arthritis alliance with GlaxoSmithKline
GSK and Galapagos initiated an arthritis alliance to discover and develop disease-modifying drugs for GSK’s global R&D organization in June 2006. GSK and Galapagos expanded the alliance on three occasions to include additional targets and increase the number of programs. Following the latest expansion in December 2009, Galapagos is eligible to receive more than EUR200 million in milestones, plus up to double-digit royalties from GSK. GSK has an exclusive option to further develop and commercialize these compounds on a worldwide basis. Since the start of the arthritis alliance, Galapagos has received more than EUR60 million in payments from GSK.
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 clinical 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 EUR2.5 billion in downstream milestones, plus royalties. The Galapagos Group has over 800 employees and operates facilities in seven countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More info at: www.glpg.com
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Source: Galapagos NV via Thomson Reuters ONE
