Galapagos and GlaxoSmithKline announced in June 2006 a broad alliance to discover and develop breakthrough medicines in osteoarthritis. This multi-target, multi-year alliance runs from target discovery through to delivery of a clinical proof of concept. In January 2007, Galapagos announced that it achieved a first milestone of €400,000 in the turn-key drug discovery alliance with GSK.

Under the alliance with GSK, Galapagos is applying its functional screening program to discover novel drugable targets in osteoarthritis (OA). Galapagos has developed assays in human primary articular chondrocytes (HACs) to measure chondrocyte differentiation and maintenance. SilenceSelect and FLeXSelect are screened in these assays to identify drugable targets that regulate chondrocyte differentiation and normal function. These hits are then validated through a selection of secondary validation assays, in order to select a final set of high value, novel, drugable OA targets for compound screening.

Galapagos announced in January 2007 that is has achieved Proof of Principle in a relevant OA animal model, showing ex vivo protection of bovine cartilage explants treated with compounds developed against Galapagos’ OA targets. Galapagos has several series of proprietary compounds in hit-to-lead and lead optimization that have potential to deliver a novel therapeutic for the treatment of OA. Three milestones have been achieved in the first half of 2007, resulting in payments of €3.6 M from GSK. In June 2007, the scope of the alliance was expanded to include up to two drug discovery programs on selected GSK drug targets.