Mechelen, Belgium, and London, UK; 19 January 2006 – Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE: GLPG) and Cancer Research Technology (“CRT”), specialists in oncology drug discovery and commercialization, a wholly owned company of Cancer Research UK, announced today that they have entered into a new collaboration in anti-cancer drug discovery research. Under the terms of the agreement Galapagos‘ service division BioFocus will perform medicinal chemistry services on a series of CRT anti-cancer drug programs. In return, CRT will fund the work of four BioFocus scientists throughout 2006.
“This agreement testifies to the high quality of BioFocus’ medicinal chemistry expertise and the overall competitiveness of our integrated services portfolio,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “We also are pleased to assist Cancer Research Technology in the fight against cancer.”
“CRT has succeeded in forming a number of collaborative anti-cancer programs with academic and commercial partners alike,” added Tony Raynham, CRT’s Head of Medicinal Chemistry. “Our relationship with BioFocus, in conjunction with existing in-house R&D resource, will ensure that these programs are advanced rapidly through early-stage development, thereby creating robust licensing opportunities and cancer patient benefit.”
Cancer remains one of the world’s most pressing health concerns. According to Cancer Research UK, physicians estimate that one in three people will get some form of cancer at some stage in life.
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 the 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 203 people, including 76 PhDs, and occupies facilities in Mechelen, Belgium, Saffron Walden, UK and Leiden, The Netherlands. The partners of Galapagos include Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Idenix, Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus can be found at www.glpg.com.
About Cancer Research Technology
Cancer Research Technology Limited (CRT) is a specialist commercialization and development company, which aims to develop new discoveries in cancer research for the benefit of cancer patients. CRT works closely with leading international cancer scientists and their institutes to protect intellectual property arising from their research and to establish links with commercial partners. CRT facilitates the discovery, development and marketing of new cancer therapeutics, vaccines, diagnostics and enabling technologies. CRT is wholly owned by Cancer Research UK, the largest independent funder of cancer research in the world. More information about CRT can be found at www.cancertechnology.com.
CONTACTS
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
Cancer Research Technology
Tony Raynham, Head of Medicinal Chemistry
Tel: +44 20 7679 6728