Galapagos NV has reached the first milestone in its antibacterials and antivirals alliance with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). For achieving this milestone, Galapagos receives a €500,000 cash payment from GSK. To date, Galapagos has earned €4 million in payments from GSK under this alliance.

In December 2007, GSK and Galapagos initiated a programme to discover and develop novel anti-infective drug candidates for GSK's Infectious Diseases Centre of Excellence in Drug Discovery (ID CEDD). The scope of the alliance was broadened in January 2009 to include three additional GSK targets. Galapagos is responsible for the discovery and development of drug candidates through to clinical Proof of Concept, at which point GSK will have exclusive option to license each compound for further development and commercialization on a worldwide basis.

Under the terms of the alliance, Galapagos could be eligible to receive up to €95 million in upfront fees, development and regulatory milestones payments for a product candidate. If a product is commercialized, Galapagos may receive up to €120 million for achievement of specific sales milestones. Galapagos is also eligible to receive up to double-digit royalties on worldwide sales of alliance products.

"Our discovery platform has delivered novel chemistry against GSK's viral and bacterial targets and we are in the process of further optimizing these molecules," said Onno van de Stolpe, chief executive officer of Galapagos. "We remain on-track to deliver phase-IIa clinical candidates to GSK that offer new treatment prospects for a broad range of infectious diseases."

Galapagos is a drug discovery and development company with small molecule programs in bone and joint diseases, bone metastasis, cachexia, anti-infectives and metabolic diseases.