“This collaboration capitalizes on Galapagos’ know-how in the autoimmune field and the strength of its target discovery platform. We are delighted to be Boehringer Ingelheim‘s partner in this disease discovery program,” said Onno van de Stolpe, CEO of Galapagos. “In this new collaboration, Galapagos is committed to delivering novel drug targets as the basis for developing novel therapies for unmet medical needs in autoimmune disease.”
Autoimmune diseases arise from an overactive immune response of the body against substances and tissues normally present in the body. Today there are more than 40 known human diseases classified as either definite or probable autoimmune diseases, affecting 5-7% of the population. Almost all autoimmune diseases appear without warning or apparent cause and most patients suffer from fatigue.
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, Celgene, GlaxoSmithKline, Idenix, Novartis, Organon, Serono, Vertex, and Wyeth. More information about Galapagos and BioFocus can be found at www.glpg.com.