Galapagos Announces Milestone Payment of €0.8 Million in Osteoarthritis Alliance with GlaxoSmithKline
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Galapagos NV has announced that it has reached two new milestones in its multi-year drug discovery alliance with GlaxoSmithKline in osteoarthritis, triggering a payment of €0.8 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.
In July 2007, GSK made a €4.4 million equity investment in Galapagos and the alliance was expanded to include up to two selected GSK targets. Now part of GSK’s Immuno-inflammation Center of Excellence for Drug Discovery alliance portfolio, the expanded alliance is worth up to €186 million in milestones for two marketable products to Galapagos, plus royalties on global product sales.
The announcement marks the fifth milestone payment made to Galapagos since the start of the osteoarthritis alliance. To date, Galapagos has received a total of €15.9 million in access fees and milestone payments from GSK under the alliance.
“We are pleased that the osteoarthritis alliance with GSK is progressing as planned, in line with our expectation to deliver a pre-clinical candidate this year,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos. “Our successful track record in risk-sharing alliances demonstrates that this model is a viable strategy to progress a number of drug discovery programs while retaining the upside.”
