Galapagos Announces Achievement of Milestones Totaling €3.2 Million in Osteoarthritis Alliance with GSK

Galapagos NV has reached two significant milestones in its multi-year drug discovery alliance with GlaxoSmithKline in osteoarthritis, triggering payments of €3.2 million from GSK.

In June 2006, GSK’s Center of Excellence for External Drug Discovery (CEEDD) and Galapagos initiated a program to deliver disease-modifying drugs with clinical Proof of Concept to GSK’s global research and development organization.

The aim of this agreement is for Galapagos to expand its portfolio of novel targets in the field of osteoarthritis, to conduct compound screening, identify tractable hits, pursue a number of hit-to-lead programs, and develop the resulting leads into candidate selection compounds through to a successful Proof of Concept in clinical research Phase IIa. 

GSK has exclusive options to further develop and commercialize these compounds on a worldwide basis.  Galapagos will have the right to further develop and commercialize compounds for which GSK does not exercise its option.  The alliance is worth up to €130 million in milestones for two marketable products to Galapagos, plus up to double-digit royalties on global product sales.

This announcement marks the second and third milestone payments made to Galapagos since the start of the program.  In January of this year, Galapagos announced the alliance’s first milestone, triggering a €400,000 payment from GSK.

“We are proud to have reached these significant milestones in the osteoarthritis program,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.  “Thanks to the alliance with GSK we have been able to staff the osteoarthritis program within Galapagos to a critical level and it is satisfying to see that our research efforts are delivering the progress that triggers these payments."