Galapagos
achieves milestone in osteoporosis collaboration with Lilly
Mechelen, Belgium; 23 July 2009 - Galapagos NV (Euronext:
GLPG) announced today that it has reached a milestone in its
osteoporosis collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY),
triggering a payment of €2.5 million from Lilly.
In December 2007, Lilly and Galapagos initiated an alliance
to develop new medicines for the treatment of osteoporosis.
The agreement provides Lilly access to 12 of Galapagos’
novel target based programs in osteoporosis, with Galapagos
responsible for the development of drug candidates through
to Phase IIa clinical Proof of Concept. The milestone announced
today is the result of one of these programs reaching the
next phase of medicinal chemistry optimization. To date, Galapagos
has received a total of €3.9 million in milestone payments
from Lilly under the alliance.
“We remain on-track in the osteoporosis alliance with
Lilly,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Galapagos’ CEO.
“Through milestone payments such as the one announced
today, we are able to finance the progression of multiple
osteoporosis drug candidates toward the clinic.”
About osteoporosis
Osteoporosis is principally an age-related disease, when hormone
levels essential for maintaining bone density decline. The
development of osteoporosis is characterized by a clinically
significant reduction in bone density. The disease is four
times as common in women as men. The enormous health care
costs associated with osteoporosis, estimated at $15 billion
per year in the USA alone, are related to the greatly increased
incidence of fractures in osteoporosis patients.
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext: GLPG; OTC: GLPYY) is a drug discovery
and development company with small molecule programs in
bone and joint diseases, bone metastasis, cachexia, anti-infectives
and metabolic diseases. It has established risk sharing
alliances with GSK, Janssen Pharmaceutica, Eli Lilly and
Merck. Through an alliance with MorphoSys, Galapagos is
also developing new antibody therapies in bone and joint
diseases. Its division BioFocus DPI offers a full suite
of target-to-drug discovery products and services to pharmaceutical
and biotech companies and to patient foundations, encompassing
target discovery and validation, screening and drug discovery
through to delivery of pre-clinical candidates. Galapagos
currently employs 490 people and operates facilities in
six countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium.
More info at: www.glpg.com.
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
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