Mechelen, Belgium; 16 January 2008 – Galapagos NV (Euronext & LSE: GLPG) announces today that it has been awarded a €4.4 M grant from the Flanders government through the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation by Science and Technology (IWT). The three-year project entitled “Kinases in Inflammation” aims to accelerate Galapagos’ rheumatoid arthritis (RA) programs through clinical Proof of Concept in man.
This project builds on the progress of Galapagos’ July 2006 IWT funded project, where new biological models were developed to evaluate the effectiveness of small molecules to treat RA. The new project will apply these biological models to select compounds for clinical studies. The project also aims to develop and validate biomarkers to monitor disease progression and therapeutic response, which will be applied in the early phases of clinical development. The grant, which will be distributed over a three-year period, will offset preclinical and phase I/phase IIa clinical costs for Galapagos’ RA programs. As part of the project, Galapagos will collaborate with the University of Leuven.
“This grant allows us to accelerate our molecules through preclinical and into phase I and phase IIa development, bringing Galapagos a step closer to delivering novel and effective RA drugs to the patient,” said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos.
About Galapagos
Galapagos (Euronext Brussels, GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam, GLPGA; London AiM: GLPG) is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programs in bone and joint diseases and cachexia. 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 ADMET database products to select targets and compounds. Galapagos currently employs 460 people and operates facilities in seven countries, with global headquarters in Mechelen, Belgium. More information about Galapagos can be found at www.glpg.com.
CONTACT
Galapagos NV
Onno van de Stolpe, CEO
Tel: +31 6 2909 8028
ir@glpg.com
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