| Wyeth
licenses drug targets from osteoporosis collaboration with Galapagos
Mechelen,
Belgium; 26 June 2007 – Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE:
GLPG) announced today that Wyeth (NYSE:WYE) has exercised its right
to license three proprietary bone anabolic drug targets from their
2003 research agreement in osteoporosis, resulting in a €1.05
million milestone payment to Galapagos.
This
is the second milestone reached in the osteoporosis collaboration
initiated in November 2003. In the collaboration, Galapagos has
applied its osteoporosis disease expertise to discover and validate
novel drug targets for Wyeth. In November 2004, Wyeth selected a
set of these targets for internal validation. Today’s milestone
announcement is the result of Wyeth licensing three targets for
its internal drug discovery research efforts. Under the terms of
the 2003 agreement, Galapagos could receive milestone payments of
up to €30 million from the collaboration. The targets involved
in the Wyeth collaboration are unrelated to the suite of proprietary
validated targets in Galapagos’ own osteoporosis program.
“Wyeth
licensing targets identified by Galapagos speaks to the strengths
and uniqueness of our target discovery approach,” said Onno
van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos. “The
expertise which led to this milestone with Wyeth also forms the
basis for our own portfolio of novel targets in osteoporosis.”
About
osteoporosis
Osteoporosis
is principally a disease of middle age during which hormone levels
essential for maintaining bone density decline. The development
of osteoporosis is characterized by a clinically significant reduction
in mean bone density due to an increase in bone resorption. The
disease is four times more common in women than men. The enormous
health care costs associated with osteoporosis, estimated at $15
billion in the USA, are related to the greatly increased incidence
of fractures in osteoporosis patients. Whereas most current therapies
have an anti-resorptive mechanism of action, agents with bone-forming
properties can be identified for future therapies by identifying
targets and molecules with anabolic functions and actions.
About
Galapagos
Galapagos
(Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA; London AiM:
GLPG) is a drug discovery company with clinical and pre-clinical
programs in bone and joint diseases, cachexia, and menopausal hot
flashes. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite of target-to-drug
discovery products and services to pharmaceutical and biotech companies,
encompassing target discovery and validation, screening and drug
discovery through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. BioFocus
DPI also provides adenoviral reagents for rapid identification and
validation of novel drug targets, compound libraries for drug screening
as well as chemogenomics and ADMET1
database products to select targets and compounds. Galapagos currently
employs 450 people and operates facilities in eight countries, with
global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More information about
Galapagos and BioFocus DPI can be found at www.glpg.com
and www.biofocusdpi.com.
CONTACT
Galapagos
NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
This release may contain forward-looking statements, including,
without limitation, statements containing the words “believes,”
“anticipates,” “expects,” “intends,”
“plans,” “seeks,” “estimates,”
“may,” “will,” “could,” “stands
to,” and “continues,” as well as similar expressions.
Such forward-looking statements may involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors which might cause the actual results,
financial condition, performance or achievements of Galapagos, or
industry results, to be materially different from any historic or
future results, financial conditions, performance or achievements
expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Given these
uncertainties, the reader is advised not to place any undue reliance
on such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date of publication of this document. Galapagos
expressly disclaims any obligation to update any such forward-looking
statements in this document to reflect any change in its expectations
with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions or circumstances
on which any such statement is based, unless required by law or
regulation.
1ADMET
is the acronym for Absorption, Distribution, Metabolism, Excretion,
and Toxicity: Meeting parameters against these five criteria is
critical to the success of a pharmaceutical compound as a drug.
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