BioFocus DPI and Dart Neuroscience Sign Drug Discovery and Compound Management Agreements

BioFocus DPI and Dart Neuroscience LLC (DNS) announced new collaboration agreements in drug discovery and compound management. Total potential value of the contracts for BioFocus DPI is €4.1 million over three years.

BioFocus DPI, the service division of Galapagos, will develop a cell-based assay for DNS’s drug discovery programs for brain disorders and perform high-throughput screening and hit expansion using BioFocus DPI’s compound collections. Furthermore, BioFocus DPI will carry out compound management for DNS over the next three years.

“This collaboration maximizes several key BioFocus DPI strengths: assay development and high-throughput screening as well as compound libraries and compound management,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “We are particularly pleased that our compound management facility in San Francisco continues to help us win new contracts and clients – we have seen strong progress in development of this business in 2008.”

“We are confident that BioFocus DPI’s integrated offering will contribute to advancing our drug discovery programs focused on various aspects of cognitive dysfunction,” added Tim Tully, Chief Scientific Officer of DNS.