Galapagos Receives Grant from IWT
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Galapagos NV has announced that it has been awarded a €2.4 million TGO (transformational medical research) grant from the Flemish agency for Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT) for psoriasis research and development.
The goal of this 4-year project is to bring a novel mode of action compound into the clinic that might lead to a safe and effective treatment for patients suffering from psoriasis.
Psoriasis is a common skin disease with a high impact on well-being and for which options for patient are currently limited.
Psoriasis is a chronic disease, affecting approximately 3% of the population. It has no final cure and therefore represents a high burden to quality of life.
Galapagos has discovered a compound series which presents a novel mode of action in psoriasis. This 4-year IWT funded research program will explore the potential application of this compound series in disease models for psoriasis, both in preclinical systems as well as in a clinical setting.
After the discovery phase, Galapagos will initiate clinical trials with this innovative, oral compound for psoriasis by using an adaptive trial design, with the aim of achieving an efficiency gain in development costs and timelines.
In the clinic, pharmacodynamic assessments will be evaluated in healthy volunteers by mimicking inflammation characteristics in a Proof-of-Mechanism study.
Galapagos will collaborate in this project with Professor Dr Jo Lambert at Ghent University.
"We are very pleased with this IWT grant, which really underscores how IWT supports innovation by biotechnology companies. This grant makes it possible to work towards a novel therapy which will hopefully improve the quality of life of psoriasis patients," said Piet Wigerinck, CSO of Galapagos.
Wigerinck continued, "Together with GSK2586184, in licensed by GlaxoSmithKline in 2012, we expect to have two drugs in development for psoriasis within two years."
