Mechelen,
Belgium; 17 May 2006 - Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE:
GLPG) announced today that its service division BioFocus
has signed an exclusive marketing & sales agreement
with Upstate, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Serologicals
Corporation (NASDAQ: SERO), for Galapagos’ adenovirus
products worldwide, excluding Japan. Under the terms of
the agreement, Upstate, a leader in cell signaling products
and services for the drug discovery industry, will put its
manufacturing, marketing, sales, customer support and technical
assistance organization behind promotion of Galapagos’
adenovirus products. In return, Galapagos will receive double-digit
royalties on net sales achieved by Upstate.
With
this agreement, Upstate will be able to fill the demand
for adenoviral reagents as research tools in drug discovery.
Life science researchers at universities, biotechnology
and pharmaceutical firms are continuously in search of the
best tools for drug discovery research, and Galapagos’
proprietary adenovirus technology forms the basis of a product
line with reagents to increase or decrease specific human
proteins in human cellular assays. This technology has proven
to be the method of choice for target discovery by many
pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and has led to
the identification of novel drug targets in many disease
areas. Hallmarks of the adenovirus technology are the stability
of the knock-in and knock-down protein levels, and the suitability
for high-throughput assays using human primary cells. These
features should allow the adenovirus technology to compete
effectively in the global market for siRNA reagents, projected
by industry experts to grow to $ 270 million in 2008. Galapagos
retains rights to continue servicing its existing customers
for these products.
“Galapagos
has been successful in marketing its adenoviral based products
with pharma and biotech. Through the alliance with Upstate,
a much larger customer base will be addressed, including
the vast academic research market that is well served by
Upstate’s marketing and sales organisation,”
said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.
“We are confident that Upstate will exploit fully
the unique selling points of our siRNA based adenoviral
reagents and greatly increase its visibility and use by
researchers worldwide.”
About
Galapagos
Galapagos
is a publicly traded, genomics-based drug discovery company
(Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA, London
AiM: GLPG) that has drug discovery programs based on proprietary,
novel targets in bone and joint diseases - osteoarthritis,
osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Galapagos offers
a full suite of target-to-drug discovery products and services
to pharmaceutical and biotech companies through its division
BioFocus, encompassing target discovery and validation,
and drug discovery services through to delivery of pre-clinical
candidates. In addition, BioFocus provides adenoviral reagents
for rapid identification and validation of novel drug targets
and compound libraries for screening. Galapagos currently
employs more than 210 people, including 80 PhDs, and occupies
facilities in Mechelen, Belgium, Saffron Walden, UK and
Leiden, The Netherlands. Partners of Galapagos include Amgen,
AstraZeneca, BASF, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline,
Idenix, Novartis, Organon, Roche, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth.
More information about Galapagos and BioFocus can be found
at www.glpg.com.
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