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Galapagos NV (PINKSHEETS:GLPYY) Mechelen, Belgium; 17 July 2008 - Galapagos NV (Euronext: GLPG) announced today that Boehringer Ingelheim has exercised its right to license two drug targets from the autoimmune research agreement with Galapagos' BioFocus DPI service division, resulting in a milestone payment to Galapagos.
This is the second milestone reached in the three-year collaboration initially announced in January 2006. In the collaboration, BioFocus DPI applied its SilenceSelect® shRNA-based gene collection to run a target discovery screen for Boehringer Ingelheim's autoimmune discovery research. BioFocus DPI obtained upfront fees, research and development funding and will receive milestone fees when certain drug discovery criteria are met. Should all criteria on a target be achieved, total potential contract value for BioFocus DPI may exceed €2 million per target.
"We are delighted that targets identified through our shRNA screening approach have met Boehringer's selection criteria," said Onno van de Stolpe, Chief Executive Officer of Galapagos. "This is further testament that the target discovery research performed at Galapagos and BioFocus DPI meets the standards of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies."
About Galapagos Galapagos (Euronext Brussels: GLPG; Euronext Amsterdam: GLPGA; OTC: GLPYY) is a drug discovery company with pre-clinical programs in bone and joint diseases and bone metastasis. Its BioFocus DPI division 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 470 people and operates facilities in six 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
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