Galapagos announced that its service division Argenta has extended its integrated contract drug discovery agreement with Genentech, a member of the Roche Group. Total potential value of the contract extension is up to £21.5 million (€23.4 million).

This is the third such extension since the agreement was announced in December 2005. The agreement covers a number of drug discovery programmes that utilize Argenta's expertise in computer-aided drug design (CADD), medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology and screening to discover new chemical entities acting against undisclosed drug targets defined by Genentech.

The extended agreement also allows Genentech to continue placing projects directly into Galapagos’ other service division, BioFocus, who will provide Genentech with integrated medicinal chemistry, in vitro biology and ADME services. BioFocus has been working with Genentech since an amendment to the Argenta agreement was signed in September 2010.

“We are proud that Genentech again has selected Argenta for this major drug discovery collaboration,” said Dr Chris Newton, SVP Services of Galapagos. “The possibility for Genentech to continue placing projects directly with BioFocus also speaks to the complementary expertise and technological capabilities that Argenta and BioFocus possess.”

Argenta’s contract research, which includes expertise in medicinal chemistry, computer-aided drug discovery, in vitro biology, analytics, in vivo pharmacokinetics, pharmacology and world-leading respiratory models, has a strong reputation for scientific excellence.

BioFocus delivers drug discovery solutions through a comprehensive platform run by dedicated teams with a track record in gene-to-clinical candidate discovery.

Galapagos is a mid-size biotechnology company specialized in the discovery and development of small molecule and antibody therapies with novel modes-of-action.